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HOME  AND   WORLD  SERIES 


HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


A  GEOGRAPHICAL  READER 


BY 


JAMES  FRANKLIN  CHAMBERLAIN,  Ed.B.,  S.B, 

1)  

DEPARTMENT   OF   GEOGRAPHY,    STATE   NORMAL  SCHOOL 

LOS   ANGELES,    CALIFORNIA 

AUTHOR  OF   "how  WE   ARE   FED,"    "HOW  WE  ARE   CLOTHED," 

AND   "field  and   LABORATORY   EXERCISES  IN 

PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY" 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ijsd. 
1911 

AU  right»  reserved 


■IV 


Copyright,  1906, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  January,  1906. 
Reprinted  February,  December,  1907;  September,  1909  ; 
September,  1910;   September,  1911. 


J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  — Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  most  marked  tendency  in  the  educational 
movement  of  to-day  is  the  effort  to  make  the 
experience  and  the  power  gained  within  the 
school  fit  into  and  supplement  the  life  with- 
out. Education  has  been,  and  is^  too  largely 
a  process  of  dealing  with  abstractions^  with 
expression  rather  than  with  experience.  By  a 
strange  perversity  we  have  insisted  upon  pre- 
senting to  the  child  that  which  is  distant  in 
place  and  time,  and  we  have  then  wondered 
why  he  was  so  ignorant  both  of  that  and  of 
the  life  about  him. 

Education  is  the  application  and  the  enlarge- 
ment of  experience,  resulting  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual.  Geography  is  one  of 
the  important  factors  in  education.  All  real 
knowledge  of  geography  is  based  upon  expe- 
riences derived  through  study  of  the  home 
surrounding's  and  relations.      To-day^  as  never 

261152 


•vi  PKEFACE 

before,  the  home  and  the  world,  the  individual 
and  the  millions  of  mankind,  are  bound  to- 
gether by  ties  as  strong  as  chains  of  steel,  yet 
as  sensitive  as  nerves. 

In  the  teaching  of  geography,  we  should  help 
the  child  to  grasp,  as  far  as  he  is  capable, 
those  physical  and  human  conditions  by  means 
of  which  the  life  about  him,  his  life,  is  main- 
tained. This  involves  the  presentation  of  con- 
ditions and  peoples  remote  from  him,  it  is 
true;  but  whatever  line  may  be  followed,  the 
pupil  soon  becomes  aware  that  the  study  of 
the  subject  begins  and  ends  in  the  home,  while 
it  encompasses  the  world.  This  furnishes  the 
only  real  foundation  for  all  later  study  of 
geography. 

Since  much  of  the  thought  and  activity  of 
every  individual  and  nation  is  centered  about 
food,  clothing,  shelter,  transportation,  and  com- 
munication, these  should  be  made  the  corner 
stones  of  home  geography.  But  while  these 
are  the  central  thoughts,  the  countless  oppor- 
tunities which  they  present  to  teach  facts  and 
truths  aside  from  them  should  be  seized  by  the 


PREFACE  vii 

teacher.  Indeed,  if  this  be  not  done,  the  work 
falls  far  short  of  its  purpose. 

Much  of  man's  progress  has  grown  out  of 
cooperation  and  specialization,  and  his  present 
daily  life  is,  in  large  •  measure,  dependent  upon 
them.  This  great  truth,  applicable  to  the 
family,  the  community,  the  school,  the  world, 
is  not  sufficiently  developed  by  teachers  and 
parents.  In  the  abstract  it  means  nothing  to 
the  child,  but  in  this  work  he  is  repeatedly 
brought  face  to  face  with  it,  in  ways  that  show 
clearly  how  his  own  welfare  and  happiness  de- 
pend upon  the  labor  and  the  thought  of  others, 
and  how  he,  in  turn,  should  contribute  to  the 
benefit  of  those  about  him. 

Maps  and  globes  should  be  constantly  used 
by  teacher  and  pupils.  All  places  mentioned 
should  be  definitely  located  and  routes  of  travel 
traced.  The  pupil  should  see  the  position  of 
places  with  reference  to  his  home,  and  should 
have  some  idea  of  the  time  required  to  reach 
them. 

While  the  books  of  this  series  are  called 
geographical    readers,    they    are    calculated    to 


Viii  PREFACE 

perform  a  much  larger  function  than  do  sup- 
plementary books.  Where  the  plan  here  pre- 
sented is  followed,  lessons  will  be  assigned  and 
the  books  used  as  regular  texts.  In  the  school 
with  which  the  author  is  connected  this  has 
been  done  for  several  years. 

More  and  more  we  are  realizing  the  value  of 
good  illustrations  in  our  schoolbooks.  In  the 
preparation  of  this  volume  no  effort  has  been 
spared  to  secure  pictures  which  actually  illus- 
trate the  work  undertaken.  It  remains  for  the 
teacher  to  use  them  in  the  most  effective 
manner. 

I  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my 
indebtedness  to  Miss  Kathrine  Lois  Scobey  of 
Dearborn  Seminary,  Chicago,  who  read  the 
entire  manuscript  and  furnished  many  valuable 
suggestions. 

Trusting  that  this  little  book  may  be  of  real 
service  in  the  great  field  of  education,  I  submit 
it  to  my  fellow-teachers. 

JAMES  FRANKLIN  CHAMBERLAIN. 

Los  Angeles, 
California. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction    .        ,        .        • 

Sheltered  by  Snow         •        • 

Homes  in  Cliffs 

A  Pueblo  Home 

Indian  Homes    ...» 

The  Dwellings  of  the  Dwarfs 

Where  the  Chrysanthemum  Grows 

A  Visit  to  China     . 

Filipino  Houses 

In  the  Land  of  Cocoanuts   . 

Life  in  a  Log  House 

Lumbering         .... 

How  Bricks  are  Made  . 

Houses  built  of  Stone  . 

Artificial  Stone      .        .        • 

Nails 

Glass 

Fire  and  its  Uses   . 

How  Coal  is  Made  and  Mined 

Light 

Petroleum         •        t        #        » 


PAGE 

1 

12 

20 

24 

32 

42 

47 

59 

67 

76 

82 

89 

110 

124 

139 

143 

146 

150 

157 

168 

178 


Ix 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTEEED 

INTRODUCTION 

This  afternoon  I  stood  in  front  of  a  large 
schoolhouse,  and  watched  the  children  march 
out.  Down  the  stairs  and  out  into  the  yard  they 
came  keeping  time  to  music.  As  they  passed 
through  the  gates  they  began  to  separate^  each 
going  to  a  different  place,  yet  each  going 
home. 

About  five  or  six  o'clock  each  evening  one  may 
see  a  stream  of  men  and  women  coming  from 
the  mills,  factories,  and  business  houses  of  a 
great  city.  The  work  of  the  day  is  over,  and 
each  of  the  workers  is  going  home. 

People  often  leave  their  homes  to  go  to  the 
seashore,  to  some  lake,  to  the  woods,  or  to  the 
mountains,  for  a  vacatioUc  Some  cross  the  ocean 
and  travel  in  foreign  lands.    It  is  pleasant  to 


2  HOW    WE  AJIE   SHELTERED 

watch  the  great  blue  waves  with  their  shaggy 
crests  of  white,  rush  against  the  rocks  and  dash 
themselves  into  spray.  To  sit  beside  some 
laughing  stream,  and  watch  the  fish  as  they  play 
in  the  clear,  deep  pools,  brings  rest  and  joy. 
A  visit  to  other  countries  is  full  of  dehght.  But 
no  matter  where  we  may  go;  no  matter  how 
much  we  may  enjoy  our  visits  and  vacation 
trips,  we  are  always  glad  to  return  to  our 
homes. 

What  is  this  home  of  which  we  each  are 
so  fond?  It  is  a  house,  you  answer.  Yes, 
it  is  a  house.  It  is  a  place  where  we  are 
sheltered  from  the  winter's  cold,  the  summer's 
heat,  and  storms  of  all  kinds.  Here  we  are 
provided  with  food ;  and  here  we  sleep  at  night. 
Home,  then,  is  the  place  to  which  we  go  for 
food,  shelter,  and  rest.  But  it  is  much  more 
than  this.  All  of  these  things  are  provided  in 
hotels  and  boarding  houses,  but  we  do  not 
think  of  these  places  as  homes. 

The  home  is  the  place  of  all  the  world  most 
dear  to  us.  Here  we  enjoy  the  love  of  mother, 
father,  and  all  of  the  members  of  the  family,  and 


INTRODUCTION" 


3 


give  ours  in  return.  Here  the  thoughts,  the 
words,  and  the  actions  are  those  of  love.  The 
streets,  the  parks,  the  cars,  the  schools  are  for 
all.    The  home  is  for  the  family. 

K4 


Fig.  1.  —  A  Bird  Home. 

Many  animals  as  well  as  people  have  homes. 
Sometimes  animals  occupy  the  same  house  for 
several  years;  and  sometimes  they  use  it  for 
but  one  season.  Animals  often  show  much  skill 
in  building  their  houses. 

Here  is  a  bird  home.  If  you  wish  to  visit  it, 
you  will  have  to  use  a  ladder  or  else  climb  the 


4  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

tree.  The  owners  reach  their  home  much  more 
easily.  The  house  is  made  of  twigs,  and  is  hned 
with  hair  and  bits  of  thread.  How  patiently 
the  parents  worked  in  building  this  home  !  In  it 
the  baby  birds  eat,  sleep,  and  grow,  while  they 
are  rocked  by  the  breezes. 

Squirrels  build  summer  homes  of  leaves  and 
twigs  high  up  in  the  tree  tops.  In  winter  they 
live  in  houses  in  the  hollows  of  the  trees.  Dur- 
ing the  bright  autumn  days  the  squirrels  carry 
nuts  and  acorns  to  these  snug  homes. 

The  muskrat  builds  a  winter  home  of  coarse 
grass  and  reeds.  It  is  in  a  marsh  or  by  the  edge 
of  a  lake  or  stream.  The  beaver  carries  sticks, 
stones,  and  quantities  of  mud  out  of  which  he 
builds  his  lodge. 

Bees  and  ants  are  wonderful  builders.  They 
live  in  communities  rather  than  in  families. 
They  are  very  industrious.  Have  you  ever 
watched  ants  as  they  worked? 

The  homes  of  animals  differ  greatly.  Some 
are  in  the  ground,  some  are  on  the  ground,  and 
some  are  far  above  the  ground.  They  are  made 
of  different  materials  and  in  different  ways. 


Fig.  2.  —  A  Beaver  Lodge. 


INTRODUCTION"  7 

The  homes  of  people  differ  very  much  also. 
You  know  that  the  homes  in  your  neighborhood 
differ  in  appearance.  Some  are  large,  and  some 
are  small.  Some  are  built  of  wood,  some  of 
brick,  and  others  of  stone.    These  are  not  the 


Fig.  3.  —  Hawaiian  Grass  House. 

only  materials  used.  Some  houses  are  made 
of  grass;  some  are  made  of  skins;  some  are 
made  of  mud.  The  Eskimo  builds  his  house  of 
snow  and  ice. 

The  material  of  which  a  house  is  built  depends 
upon  climate,   upon  what  can  be  obtained   to 


HOW   WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


Fig.  4. — Laplander's  Winter  Home. 

build  with,  and  upon  the  skill  of   the  builders. 

Some  people,  like  animals,  wander  about  a  great 

deal  in  search  of 
food  and  water  for 
themselves  or  for 
their  flocks.  Natu- 
rally such  people 
cannot  have  jper- 
manent     homes. 

Fig.   5.  —  Hut  on  the  Kongo  Eiver.       The    home     of    the 

Indian  is  often  carried  from  place  to  place. 


INTRODUCTIOlSr  9 

There  is  a  difference  between  country  homes 
and  city  homes.  In  the  coimtry  each  family 
has  its  own  house,  usually  made  of  wood.  In  a 
great  city  there  are  many  buildings  known  as 
tenement  or  apartment  houses.     In  one  of  these 


Fig.  i). — A  Home   in  tlic  Country. 

houses  there  may  be  fifty  families.  Each  family 
rents  a  few  rooms  from  the  owner.  Of  course 
there  are  many  city  people  who  own  their  homes. 
Brick  and  stone  are  used  a  great  deal  in  cities 
because  of  the  danger  from  fire. 


10 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


You  know  that  food  and  clothing  are  necessi- 
ties of  hfe.  In  most  parts  of  the  world  shelter 
is  also  a  necessity.  In  some  parts  each  man 
makes  the  house  for  his  family.  Did  the  people 
in  your  neighborhood  make  their  own  houses? 


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1 

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Fig.  7. — An  Apartment  House  in  New  York  City. 


Of  what  are  they  made  ?    Where  did  the  materials 
of  which  they  are  made  come  from  ? 

Let  us  take  a  journey  together,  and  visit  homes 
in  our  own,  and  in  other  countries.  We  shall  learn 
how  these  houses  are  made,  and  of  what  they 


INTRODUCTION  11 

are  constructed.  We  shall  also  become  some- 
what acquainted  with  the  people  who  live  in 
them,  and  with  the  countries  in  which  we 
travel. 


SHELTERED    BY    SNOW 

You  have  probably  played  in  the  snow  many 
times.  Perhaps  you  have  made  forts  of  snow, 
and  dug  caves  in  some  great  white  drift.  I  am 
sure,  however,  that  you  would  never  think  of 
making  a  house  of  snow  to  serve  as  your  home 
during  the  long,  cold  winter. 

People  do  make  houses  of  snow,  and  they  keep 
warm  in  them,  too.  These  people  are  our  Eskimo 
friends,  who  live  in  the  far  northland.  There 
are  no  forests  there,  for  it  is  too  cold  for  trees 
to  grow.  For  many  weeks  during  the  winter 
the  sun  does  not  shine^  for  there  is  one  long, 
unbroken  night. 

When  the  Eskimo  gets  ready  to  build  his 
winter  home  or  igloo,  he  selects  a  place  where  the 
snow  is  deep  and  firmly  packed.  With  a  long 
knife  of  bone  he  cuts  a  great  block  from  the 
snow,  and  throws  it  to  one  side.  He  then  stands 
in  the  hole  thus  made,  and  cuts  out  other  blocks. 

12 


SHELTERED  BY   SNOW 


13 


The  blocks  are  from  eight  to  ten  inches  in  thick- 
ness, about  two  feet  wide,  and  perhaps  two 
and  one-half  feet  in  length.  These  are  placed 
on  the  snow,  end  to  end,  forming  a  circle. 


Fig.  8.  —  Building  Igloos. 
From  the  Report  of  the  National  Museum^  1901. 

A  second  row  of  blocks  is  placed  upon  the  first, 
and  so  on,  each  circle  being  smaller  than  the 
one  below  it.  At  last  only  one  great  block  is 
needed  to  finish  the  igloo.  Putting  this  last  one 
on  is  a  little  like  putting  a  stopper  in  a  bottle. 
You  know  that  the  bricks  in  a  wall  are  laid  so 
that  the  joints,  as  they  come  together,  do  not 
form  a  line.  The  Eskimo  lays  his  bricks  of  snow 
in  the  same  way. 


14  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

When  the  igloo  is  finished,  it  looks  like  a  great 
white  bowl  turned  upside  down.  The  little 
crevices  between  the  blocks  are  carefully  filled 
with  snow,  for  the  breath  of  the  frost  king  is 
bitter  cold;  and  it  must  not  be  allowed  to  enter. 

But  the  house  is  not  finished  when  the  walls 
have  been  laid.  Neither  doors  nor  windows  have 
yet  been  constructed.  When  the  Eskimo  wishes 
to  make  a  door,  he  cuts  an  opening  underneath 
the  lowest  layer  of  blocks.  Then  he  makes  a 
burrow  or  tunnel  in  the  snow  for  some  distance. 
This  is  the  entrance  to  the  house.  Skins  or 
blocks  of  snow  are  placed  before  the  openings  to 
keep  out  the  cold.  The  window  is  a  cake  of  clear 
ic^  set  in  the  wall. 

Your  home  has  several  rooms.  Perhaps  it  is 
more  than  one  story  high.  An  Eskimo  house 
consists  of  but  one  room.  There  is  very  little 
furniture  in  the  house,  but  of  course  there  is  a 
be^.  What  do  you  suppose  it  is  made  of? 
Snow! 

At  one  side  of  the  igloo  the  snow  is  packed 
hard,  and  upon  this,  moss,  grass,  and  twigs  are 
placed  when  they  can  be  obtained.     Over  these, 


SHELTERED  BY  SNOW 


16 


heavy  skins  are  laid,  and  the  softer  skins  and 
furs  that  serve  as  bedclothes  are  spread  on  top. 
Another  thing  that  would  interest  you  very 
much  is  the  stove.  It  is  not  purchased  at  a 
store,  but  hke  nearly  everything  else  that  the 


Pig.  0.  —  An  Eskimo  Home. 

Eskimo  people  use,  is  made  by  their  own  hands. 
The  stove  is  nothing  but  a  stone  that  has  been 
hollowed  out.  It  is  both  a  stove  and  a  lamp. 
Some  whale  oil  and  a  wick  of  moss  complete  it. 
I  will  tell  you  more  about  it  in  another  place. 


16  HOW   WE   ARE  SHELTERED 

The  heat  from  Jthis  lamp  keeps  the  house  quite 
warm  when  the  entrance  is  closed.  Sometimes 
it  is  so  warm  in  the  igloo  that  water  drips  from 
the  ceiling  of  snow.  When  it  is  very  cold  the 
moisture  from  the  breath  of  the  people  collects 
on  the  ceiling,  forming  beautiful  crystals  which 
sparkle  like  jewels  in  the  light. 

On  the  walls  are  bear,  seal,  and  walrus  skins. 
Some  articles  of  clothing,  bows  and  arrows, 
harpoons,  knives,  cups,  and  pails  are  to  be 
seen.  The  cups  and  pails  are  made  of  seal- 
skin. I  am  afraid  that  you  would  not  think 
the  igloo  a  very  comfortable  home.  The  '^chil- 
dren of  the  cold^^  know  of  no  other  kind  of 
home ;  and  they  are  quite  happy  in  it.  They 
know  nothing  of  cakes,  pies,  and  other  dainties 
with  which  you  are  familiar.  They  are  as 
dehghted  with  pieces  of  fat  from  the  seal,  rein- 
deer, or  walrus  as  you  are  with  a  chocolate  cream. 
Often  their  food  is  eaten  raw.  Sometimes  they 
are  so  hungry  that  they  are  glad  to  eat  bits  of 
the  skins  of  these  animals. 

Although  the  winters  are  very  long  and  cold, 
the  Eskimos  do  not  remain  indoors  all  of  the 


SHELTERED  BY  SNOW  17 

time.  The  men  must  go  in  search  of  food,  and 
sometimes  the  women  go  with  them.  The  chil- 
dren have  great  sport  riding  on  their  sleds  which 
are  drawn  by  dogs.  The  sleds  are  called  kamu- 
tees,  and  the  dogs  mikies.  When  at  last  the  winter 
is  over  and  spring  has  returned  to  the  north- 
land  the  igloo  begins  to  melt.  The  walls  must 
be  patched  up  for  a  short  time,  but  soon  the  house 
has  to  be  given  up  entirely. 

Now  the  tupec  or  tent  must  be  built.  This  is 
the  summer  home,  and  is  made  of  the  skins  of 
the  walrus  and  the  seal.  A  number  of  these 
skins  are  sewed  together.  The  tent  poles  are 
the  long  bones  of  the  walrus  and  whale. 

During  the  summer  the  Eskimo  people  move 
about  a  great  deal.  This  is  the  season  when 
most  of  the  hunting  and  fishing  is  done.  The 
snow  and  ice  have  melted  and  the  boats  can  be 
used.  The  boats  are  made  of  skins,  and  have 
ribs  of  bone.  The  boat  used  by  the  men  when 
hunting  the  seal  is  small  and  Hght.  It  carries 
but  one  person,  and  is  called  a  kayak.  There  are 
larger  boats,  known  as  umiaks,  in  which  the 
family  sometimes  move  from  place  to  place. 


18 


HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


Even  in  Eskimo  land  there  is  some  grass  in 
summer.  Mosses  and  a  few  flowers  may  be 
seen.  Birds  build  their  nests  in  sheltered  places 
among  the  rocks  and  raise  their  families.  The 
children  enjoy  the  summer  very  much.  They 
have  plenty  of  time  to  play,  and  they  also  hunt 


Fig.  10.  — The  Tupec. 

for  eggs  and  thus  help  to  supply  the  family  with 
food.  They  gather  moss  and  roll  it  into  large 
strings  to  be  used  as  wicks  in  the  stone  lamps. 
A  supply  of  this  moss  must  be  gathered  during 
the  summer.  Why? 
There  are  Eskimos  on  the  west  and  the  east 


SHELTERED  BY  SNOW  19 

coasts  of  Greenland,  in  the  region  around  Hudson 
Bay  and  in  Alaska.  Find  these  regions  on  your 
map.  The  homes  differ  in  the  different  sections. 
In  some  places  the  winter  home  is  made  of  stones 
and  earth.  In  the  places  which  the  white  men 
have  visited,  a  good  deal  of  wood  is  used  in 
building.  In  these  homes  are  found  many 
things,  such  as  cloth,  needles,  thread,  knives, 
guns,  and  dishes  which  the  Eskimos  have  ob- 
tained from  their  white  visitors. 

There  is  very  much  more  to  be  told  about  these 
northern  neighbors  of  ours,  but  I  am  sure  that 
you  now  feel  somewhat  acquainted  with  them. 
You  have  many  things  which  the  children  of 
the  snow  do  not  have,  but  they  would  be  no 
more  contented  in  your  home  than  you  would 
be  in  theirs. 


HOMES  IN  CLIFFS 

In  the  southwestern  part  of  our  country  are 
to  be  seen  some  of  the  most  interesting  houses 
in  the  world.  I  have  called  them  houses,  but 
they  are  little  more  than  niches  in  cliffs  on  moun- 
tain side  or  canon  wall,  and  so  they  come  to  be 
called  ^^Chff  Dwellings/'  and  the  people  who 
once  lived  in  them,  ''Cliff  Dwellers.''  Although 
the  people  who  inhabited  these  deserted  homes, 
have  long  since  passed  away,  their  descendants 
still  dwell  in  that  thirsty  land,  in  homes  almost 
as  wonderful  as  those  of  their  ancestors. 

Rock  is  often  found  in  layers  or  strata,  like  the 
leaves  in  a  book,  only,  of  course,  many  times 
thicker.  Along  a  mountain  or  canon  side,  the 
edges  of  many  strata  are  frequently  exposed  to 
the  weather,  and  some  wear  away  much  more 
rapidly  than  do  others.  In  the  spaces  left  by 
the  wearing  away  of  the  softer  rock,  the  Cliff 
Dwellers  made  their  homes. 

20 


HOMES  IN   CLIFFS  21 

I  once  visited  one  of  their  silent  villages.  It 
consists  of  three  stories  of  rooms  perched  on  the 
edge  of  a  canon.  In  front  is  a  ledge  but  a  few 
feet  in  width,  and  when  I  dropped  a  stone  over 
it,  down  it  plunged  farther  than  it  would  if  it 
had  been  dropped  from  the  top  of  the  highest 
building  in  New  York  City.  Think  of  the  dark- 
skinned  babies  who  once  toddled  about  these 
narrow  front  yards,  without  wall  or  fence  between 
them  and  this  great  chasm. 

There  was  no  one  to  greet  me  as  I  entered  the 
empty  rooms.  I  was  obliged  to  stoop  a  little, 
for  the  ceiling  was  low.  The  height  of  the  rooms 
depended  upon  the  thickness  of  the  layer  of  rock 
that  once  occupied  the  space.  There  was  not 
much  building  to  be  done  in  making  a  cliff  dwell- 
ing, for  the  roof  and  rear  wall  were  provided 
by  nature.  A  wall  of  rough  stones  plastered 
over  separated  the  rooms,  which  were  smaller 
than  ordinary  bedrooms  in  our  homes. 

Outside,  the  yellow  sunlight  fell  upon  the 
rocks,  and  sifted  between  the  branches  of  the 
tall  pines,  but  these  houses  of  stone  were  gloomy, 
for    Uttle    sunshine    could    enter    them.    There 


22  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

were  no  windowS;  and  the  single  entrance  to  each 
house  was  small,  so  that  enemies  would  not  find 
it  easy  to  enter. 

House  cleaning  had  not  occurred  here  for  a 
long  time,  for  there  were  several  inches  of  sand 


Fig.  11.  — a  Cliff  Dwelling. 

on  the  floor.  I  dug  into  this  sand,  and  found 
bits  of  pottery,  and  some  dried  and  shrunken 
corncobs.  Do  you  wonder  how  the  cobs  came 
to  be  there?  The  people  cultivated  fields  of 
corn  on  the  lowlands,  and  ground  the  kernels 
between  stones.  The  stove  was  a  hole  in  the 
floor,  and  the  chimney  an  opening  in  the  roof. 


HOMES  IN   CLIFFS  23 

As  I  looked  across  the  deep,  wide  canon  at  my 
feet,  I  could  see  on  the  farther  side  another  row 
of  cliff  dwellings  exactly  like  those  I  was  visit- 
ing. I  could  almost  fancy  that  I  saw  dark  figures 
moving  to  and  fro,  cultivating  the  little  fields 
of  corn  far  below,  and  patient  women  slowly 
toiling  up  a  flight  of  steep  steps,  cut  in  the  face 
of  the  chff,  to  the  houses  far  above. 


A   PUEBLO   HOME 

Little  Kopeli  is  a  child  of  the  desert.  He 
has  never  seen  a  train  of  cars,  a  street  car,  or 
an  electric  light.  He  knows  nothing  of  the 
telegraph  or  the  telephone,  and  he  has  never 
ridden  on  a  bicycle,  or  in  an  automobile. 

Cool,  shady  woods  and  soft,  green  meadows 
are  not  seen  where  Kopeli  lives,  for  it  is  a  land 
of  little  rain.  Most  of  the  scanty  vegetation  is 
quite  different  from  that  with  which  you  are 
familiar.  A  curious  plant  often  found  in  this 
country  is  the  cactus.  Do  not  touch  it,  for  it 
is  covered  with  sharp  spines.  See  how  thick 
and  leathery  the  leaves  are.  This  helps  it  to 
live  in  a  dry  climate.  It  bears  a  fruit  which  is 
yellow  when  ripe.  Kopeli  has  often  eaten  it, 
but  you  would  not  think  it  very  good. 

This  desert  region  of  which  I  have  spoken  is 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  our  country.  Most 
of  the  people  who  Uve  there  are  Indians  who  are 

24: 


hiQ.  V2.  —  A  Cactiis. 


A  PUEBLO   HOME  27 

called  Pueblos.  Pueblo  means  village,  so  I 
hardly  need  tell  you  that  these  people  live  in 
villages.  Generally  we  find  but  one  family  of 
Indians  in  a  house,  but  this  is  not  the  case  with 
the  Pueblos,  for  a  whole  village  may  consist  of 
but  three  or  four  dwellings.  The  Pueblos  are 
the  descendants  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers  of  whom 
I  have  told  you,  and  nearly  all  of  them  live  in 
New  Mexico. 

When  the  father  of  Kopeli  wanted  to  build  a 
house,  he  did  not  go  to  a  carpenter,  but,  with 
the  help  of  his  wife  and  neighbors,  did  the  work 
himself.  Before  beginning  the  dwelling,  however, 
he  went  to  the  chief  of  the  village.  The  chief 
took  four  eagle  feathers,  sprinkled  them  with 
meal,  and  blessed  them.  Folding  the  feathers 
carefully  under  his  blanket,  KopeU's  father  carried 
them  to  the  spot  where  the  house  was  to  stand. 
With  reverent  hands  he  placed  a  feather  at  each 
corner,  covering  it  with  a  stone.  There  were  other 
ceremonies  connected  with  the  building  of  the 
house.  One  of  the  prettiest  was  the  singing  of 
songs  to  the  sun. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Pueblo  mothers 


28  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

do  much  of  the  work  of  building  their  houses. 
The  houseS;  and  all  that  they  contain,  belong 
to  the  women  instead  of  to  the  men.  Kopeli 
watched  while  stones  were  collected,  and  built 
into  the  walls  of  the  house,  which  were  then  given 
a  coating  of  plaster  made  of  mud  and  water. 
The  floor  was  made  of  the  flat  stones,  over  which 
a  coating  of  this  same  plaster  was  laid. 

From  the  mountains  the  men  brought  long 
poles  about  six  inches  in  diameter.  These  they 
placed  across  the  top  of  the  walls.  Kopeli 's 
mother  and  the  other  women  placed  willow 
branches  upon  the  roof  poles.  Over  these  they 
placed  grass  and  twigs,  and  then  a  coating  of 
mud.  The  roof,  like  all  of  the  others  in  the 
village,  was  nearly  flat. 

In  one  corner  of  the  house  a  fireplace  and  a 
chimney  were  built,  and  around  the  walls  some 
rough  benches  were  placed.  The  house  had 
two  small  windows  of  glass,  but  in  earlier  times 
the  people  used  thin  pieces  of  a  translucent  stone. 

The  Pueblos  are  fond  of  bread,  so  the  mealing 
stones  were  not  forgotten.  These  stones  are 
used  for  grinding  the  grain,  and  they  take  the 


A  PUEBLO   HOME 


29 


place  of  flour  mills.  They  are  smooth  and  flat, 
and  are  placed  on  the  floor  along  one  side  of  the 
room.  Kopeli's  mother,  sitting  on  the  floor, 
grinds  the  corn  between  two  of  them.     If  she 


Fjg.  13.  —  A  Pueblo  Dwelling. 

wants  very  fine  flour,  she  uses  the  smoothest 
stones;   if  coarser  flour,  the  rougher  ones. 

Each  house  has  its  loom  on  which  blankets 
and  clothing  are  made.  The  weaving  is  quite 
commonly  done  by  the  men.  They  raise  their 
own  sheep  and  cotton,  and  they  dye  the  yam 
bright  colors. 


30  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

As  I  have  said,  a  Pueblo  village  sometimes 
consists  of  but  three  or  four  houses,  each  of 
which  may  contain  two  or  three  hundred  rooms. 
The  pueblo  of  Pecos,  New  Mexico,  has  one  house 
in  which  there  are  nearly  six  hundred  rooms. 
Some  houses  are  but  one  story  high,  while  others 
are  five  or  six. 

You  must  not  suppose  that  these  large  houses 
are  built  in  a  few  weeks  or  months  as  our  houses 
are.  They  are  built  piecemeal,  and  are  added 
to  from  generation  to  generation.  When  the 
houses  are  more  than  one  story  high,  they  are 
built  in  terraces,  the  roof  of  the  first  story  form- 
ing the  front  yard  of  the  second,  and  so  on. 
Ladders  are  often  used  to  climb  from  one  story 
to  another. 

There  is  Httle  in  a  Pueblo  house  to  make  it 
comfortable  or  beautiful.  There  are  no  couches, 
carpets,  curtains,  dressers,  pictures,  pipes  for 
hot  and  cold  water,  gas  or  electric  fixtures.  All 
of  the  water  used  in  the  village  is  carried  by  the 
women,  from  a  stream  some  distance  away,  in 
earthen  jars  or  baskets  lined  with  clay.  In 
spite  of  this  lack  of  conveniences;  Kopeli  is 
hannv  in  his  homp. 


A  PUEBLO  HOME  31 

The  Pueblos  are  farmers.  They  raise  com, 
beans,  red  peppers,  squashes,  melons,  peaches, 
tobacco,  and  cotton.  They  dig  ditches  from 
the  streams  to  their  gardens,  and  so  water  their 
crops.  This  is  called  irrigating.  In  the  autumn, 
strings  of  sliced  squashes,  pumpkins,  and  peaches 
may  be  seen  drying  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses. 

Of  course  the  crops  could  not  be  raised  without 
rain,  and  these  people  have  some  strange  cere- 
monies which  they  seem  to  believe  will  cause 
rain  to  fall  upon  the  thirsty  soil.  One  of  these 
is  known  as  the  snake-dance.  Bands  of  nearly 
naked  men  dance  to  and  fro,  carrying  about  their 
arms  and  necks,  and  even  in  their  mouths,  deadly 
rattlesnakes.  The  ceremony  is  a  religious  one, 
and  it  means  a  great  deal  to  these  people. 

We  must  bid  good-by  to  little  Kopeli,  but  we 
shall  not  forget  him,  nor  his  strange  home  perched 
upon  the  rocks  in  New  Mexico. 


INDIAN  HOMES 

When  Columbus  discovered  America,  he  found 
the  land  in  the  possession  of  a  race  of  men  whom 
he  called  Indians.  Columbus  supposed  that  the 
country  upon  whose  shore  he  had  landed  was 
India,  so  you  see  why  he  named  the  people  In- 
dians. 

Indians  used  to  live  in  all  parts  of  both  South 
and  North  America.  They  roamed  over  the 
land  upon  which  Boston,  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  other  large  cities  now  stand,  and  their 
camp  fires  gleamed  beside  every  lake  and  stream. 
Perhaps  your  own  front  yard  was  once  chosen  by 
some  squaw  as  a  good  place  on  which  to  erect 
a  wigwam  for  her  papooses. 

There  were  many  wars  between  the  white  men 
and  the  Indians,  but  in  the  end  the  Indians  were 
always  defeated.  To-day  most  of  the  Indians 
of  North  America  live  in  the  West  on  reserva- 
tions.   A  reservation  is  a  tract  of  land  set  apart 

32 


INDIAN   HOMES  33 

by  the  government  for  the  use  of  the  Redmen. 
There  are  many  different  tribes  of  Indians,  and 
they  build  somewhat  different  styles  of  houses. 
Many  have  fashioned  their  homes  after  those 
of  the  white  people. 

The  Indians  have  always  been  great  hunters. 
In  the  early  days  they  did  little  besides  hunting, 
fishing,  and  fighting.  As  meat  was  their  chief 
food  it  was  necessary  to  follow  the  great  herds 
of  buffalo,  elk,  and  other  animals  from  place  to 
place.  The  ponies,  too,  needed  new  pasture 
ground  from  time  to  time.  Because  of  this,  the 
people  did  not  build  permanent  dwellings  as  we 
do,  but  rather  houses  that  could  be  easily  and 
quickly  constructed.  Poles,  skins,  bark,  leaves, 
grass,  and  even  dirt  were  used.  Often  the  house 
was  carried  or  dragged  by  ponies  from  place  to 
place  to  save  building  a  new  one  each  time  they 
moved. 

For  their  homes  Indians  have  many  names, 
such  as  lodge,  wigwam,  tepee,  wicky-up,  hogan, 
and  kan.  By  the  Indians  who  live  on  the  plains, 
the  house  is  often  called  a  tepee.  As  you  see 
by  the  picture  it  is  cone  shaped.     In  the  early 


34 


HOW  WE   ARE  SHELTERED 


days  it  was  covered  with  buffalo  skin.  Upon  it 
were  paintings  in  bright  colors  representing 
battles  or  hunting  scenes.  To-day  the  covering 
is  of  cloth.     Do  you  know  why? 


Fia.  14.  — A  Tepee. 

From  the  Report  of  the  National  Museum,  1901. 

The  frame  of  the  tepee  is  of  poles  twelve  to 
sixteen  feet  in  length.  Notice  that  they  are 
tied  together  at  the  top  and  spread  out  at  the 
bottom.  The  cloth  is  sewed  in  strips,  and  placed 
over  the  frame.  The  door,  you  see,  is  like  the 
of  a  tent. 


INDIAN  HOMES  35 

If  you  could  see  a  house  being  set  up,  you 
would  be  surprised  to  see  that  the  Indian  women, 
who  are  called  squaws,  do  all  of  the  work. 
They  spread  cloth  on  the  ground  where  the 
tepee  is  to  stand.  Then  they  tie  three  of  the 
poles  together  at  their  small  ends,  using  thongs 
for  the  purpose.  A  minute  more  and  the  poles 
are  pushed  under  the  cloth  and  through  the 
opening  at  the  top.  You  would  know  this 
was  not  the  first  tepee  that  the  squaws  had  set 
up,  or  they  could  not  so  easily  lift  the  house 
to  its  place.  Look  how  they  spread  the  poles 
far  apart  at  the  bottom.  One  by  one  the 
other  poles  are  fastened  in  place.  Tap !  Tap ! 
Tap !  The  squaws  are  driving  a  few  pegs  into 
the  ground,  fastening  the  tepee  at  the  bottom; 
and  now  the  work  is  finished,  and  the  family 
can  move  in. 

You  notice  that  the  cloth  does  not  come  to- 
gether at  the  top  of  the  tepee.  The  opening  takes 
the  place  of  a  chimney.  A  fire  is  built  on  the 
ground  in  the  middle  of  the  house.  A  kettle  is 
hung  over  the  fire,  and  here  the  cooking  is 
done.     Around  the  edge  of  the  tent  are  skins 


36 


HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


and  blankets  upon  which  the  members  of  the 
family  sleep. 

Here  are  some  houses  made  by  the  Wichita 
Indians.  The  one  on  the  left  looks  like  a  pile 
of  hay  or  an  old-fashioned  beehive.  At  the 
right  are  two  workmen  building  a  house. 


Fig.  15.  —  Wichita  Indians  building  a  House. 
From  the  Report  of  the  National  Museum,  1901. 

They  select  poles  and  push  their  large  ends 
firmly  into  the  ground.  They  then  tie  the 
ends  together  at  the  top,  as  you  see.  Now 
smaller  poles  are  bound  to  these  horizontally, 
forming  circles  like  the  hoops  on  a  barrel.  Next 
wisps  of  grass  are  woven  over  the  framework, 
and  the  house  is  complete. 


INDIAN   HOMES  37 

This  is  the  home  of  a  family  of  Navajo  Indians. 
The  part  at  the  right  is  called  the  hogan.  It 
is  a  great  mound  of  earth  placed  over  a  frame- 
work of  poles.  Underneath  the  dirt  is  a 
layer  of  bark  and  weeds  to  keep  it  from  falling 
through  into  the  house.     You  can  see  the  hole 


Fig.  16. — Navajo  Hogan  and  Eamada. 

at  the  top  which  serves  as  a  chimney.  How 
would  you  like  to  live  in  such  a  house? 

Adjoining  the  hogan  is  a  summer  house.  This 
is  called  the  ramada.  It  is  covered  with  boughs 
and  grass,  and  serves  to  keep  off  the  bright  sun- 
shine. 

In  California,  Utah,  and  Nevada  live  the  Digger 


38 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


Indians.  They  received  this  name  because  they 
dig  roots  from  the  earth,  and  use  them  in  various 
ways. 


Pig.  17.  —  An  Apache  *'Kan,"  or  House. 


The  chief  food  of  the  Diggers  is  acorns.  They 
make  long  trips  across  the  mountains  in  search 
of  these,  carrying  them  home  in  baskets  such 
as  you  see  in  the  picture.  Then  the  women 
grind  them  in  mortars  of  stone,  and  bake  a 
sort  of  bread  from  the  flouTo 


Fig.  18.  —  Home  of  a  Family  of  Digger  Indians. 


INDIAN  HOMES  41 

The  home,  as  you  see,  is  made  of  rushes.  They 
are  bound  together,  and  fastened  to  a  frame- 
work of  poles.  Just  think  of  the  difference 
between  this  house  and  the  one  in  which  you 
Hve. 


THE  DWELLINGS   OF  THE  DWARFS 

Far  off  in  the  central  part  of  Africa  there  are 
great  dark  forests.  The  trees  are  so  thick^and 
their  branches  are  so  closely  woven  together, 
that  little  sunshine  finds  its  way  to  the  ground. 
In  fact  it  is  almost  like  twilight  in  these  forests 
all  day  long. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  journey  through  this 
region.  Hanging  from  the  trees  are  rope-like 
plants  called  lianas^  while  vines  and  creepers 
entangle  the  feet  of  the  traveler,  and  fallen 
trees  block  his  way.  Most  of  the  paths  belong 
not  to  men  but  to  animals.  Some  of  them  were 
made  by  the  feet  of  elephants. 

Of  course  we  know  that  there  are  no  such 
things  as  sprites,  goblins,  and  brownies,  yet  in 
these  gloomy  forests  there  is  a  race  of  people  so 
small,  and  so  full  of  pranks,  as  almost  to  make 
us  believe  in  them.  These  little  creatures  are 
called  Pygmies.    When  full  grown,  they  average 

42 


THE  DWELLINGS  OF  THE  DWARFS  43 

about  four  and  one-half  feet  in  height,  or  about 
as  tall  as  a  ten-year-old  boy.  Although  they 
belong  to  the  Negro  race,  some  of  them  are 
reddish  brown  in  color. 

The  Pygmies  are  real  hunters,  and  do  not  till 
the  soil  at  all.  Their  weapons  are  bows  and 
arrows,  spears,  and  knives.  The  arrows  are 
generally  poisoned.  So  skillful  and  so  brave 
are  these  little  people  that  they  kill  the  largest 
animals,  even  the  elephant. 

The  Dwarfs  usually  live  close  to  some  tribe  of 
larger  Negroes,  who  have  banana  plantations 
and  fields  of  sweet  potatoes.  The  Pygmies  are 
very  fond  of  these  things.  Sometimes  they  ex- 
change meat,  skins,  ivory,  and  feathers  for  them, 
and  at  other  times  they  help  themselves  by  night. 
If  their  larger  neighbors  take  this  good-naturedly, 
the  little  people  will  leave  presents  for  them, 
pull  the  weeds  from  the  plantations,  and  kill  the 
animals  that  would  destroy  the  crops  while  the 
owners  are  sound  asleep.  Are  they  not  like 
the  brownies? 

It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  visit  these  little 
creatures,  for  although  they  are  brave  and  even 


44  HOW  WE   ARE  SHELTERED 

cruel,  they  are  also  very  shy.  Generally  they 
will  not  allow  white  men  to  see  them  unless  the 
larger  Negroes  tell  them  that  they  will  not  be 
harmed. 

The  Pygmies  have  no  dogs,  horses,  cattle,  or 
domestic  animals  of  any  sort.  They  wear  but  lit- 
tle clothing,  and  their  homes  are  very  simple.  Al- 
though they  live  in  villages,  you  might  pass  very 
close  to  one  of  them,  and  not  know  it,  for  the 
buildings  are  very  low.  There  are  no  chimneys 
rising  above  them,  and  there  are  no  stores,  mills, 
or  factories.  The  homes  are  arranged  in  a 
circle,  that  of  the  chief  being  in  the  center. 

When  the  Dwarfs  wish  to  build  a  house,  they 
cut  a  number  of  light  poles,  and  bending  each 
into  the  form  of  an  arch,  push  the  ends  firmly 
into  the  ground.  These  form  the  frame  of  the 
building.  Next,  grasses  and  broad  leaves  are 
woven  between  the  poles,  forming  a  thatch. 
How  high  do  you  suppose  one  of  these  houses 
is?  A  man  of  average  height  could  not  stand 
erect  in  one,  for  they  are  but  four  or  five  feet 
high !  Often  the  breadth  is  no  greater  than  the 
height. 


THE   DWELLINGS  OF   THE  DWARFS  45 

Let  us  imagine  ourselves  entering  one  of  these 
little  homes.  We  cannot  walk  in,  but  must  get 
down  on  our  knees.  A  small  bush  standing  in 
front  of  a  hole  in  the  wall,  is  the  door.  We 
push  this  aside,  and  crawl  in.  How  dark  it  is ! 
There  is  not  a  window  in  the  house.  Soon  our 
eyes  become  accustomed  to  the  darkness,  and 
we  examine  our  surroundings.  The  house  con- 
sists of  but  one  room.  There  are  neither  stoves, 
tables,  chairs,  nor  furniture  of  any  kind.  Yes, 
there  is  a  bed,  but  it  is  simply  a  pile  of  dry  leaves. 
We  are  very  much  surprised  to  learn  that  the 
children,  when  quite  small,  are  placed  in  tiny 
houses  by  themselves !  How  would  you  like 
to  live  in  that  way? 

The  Pygmies  are,  at  times,  quite  frolicsome. 
They  laugh,  sing,  dance,  and  imitate  in  various 
ways  the  things  which  they  have  seen  others  do. 
They  have  been  known  for  a  long  time,  but  few 
white  people  had  seen  one  of  them  until  the  sum- 
mer of  1904.  During  that  year  a  missionary 
brought  a  number  of  them  to  the  Saint  Louis 
Exposition.  This  gentleman  had  visited  the 
Dwarfs   in  Africa,   and  they  felt  that   he  was 


46  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

their  friend.  Yet  even  he  had  great  difficulty  in 
persuading  them  to  leave  their  forest  homes,  and 
I  am  sure  that  they  were  very  glad  to  return 
to  them. 


WHERE  THE  CHRYSANTHEMUM  GROWS 


Near  the  western  shore  of  the  great  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  a  little  to  the  east  of  China,  is  Japan. 


Fig.  19. —The  Mongolia. 

Can  you  point  to  it  on  the  map?  The  country- 
consists  of  many  islands,  most  of  which  are  very 
small.     Let  us  imagine  that  we  are  making  a 

47 


48 


HOW   WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


journey  to  that  far-away  land.  We  leave  San 
Francisco  on  the  great  steamship,  Mongolia, 
and  after  traveling  over  the  blue  waters  for  about 
three  weeks  we  reach  Yokohama,  the  great  sea- 
port of  Japan.  The  Mongolia  is  six  hundred  and 
fifteen  feet  long.  If  a  twenty-story  building 
were  placed  sidewise  on  the  vessel,  it  would  not 
reach  halfway  from  bow  to  stern. 

After  attending  to  our  baggage  we  leave  the 
wharf  to  look  for  a  cab.     A  large  number  of  men 

shouting  and  wav- 
ing their  arms  is 
gathered  not  far 
away.  They  are 
dressed  in  blue, 
and  wear  shallow 
oval  hats.  As  we 
draw    nearer    we 

Fig.  20.  —  A  Jinrikisha. 

Courtesyo/A.C.Vroman.  See      that       Cach     Is 

beckoning  to  the  passengers  and  calling,  ^'  'Rik'- 
sha?''  '^^Rik^sha?''  Jinrikisha  is  an  odd  name 
for  a  two-wheeled  cart  or  carriage,  is  it  not  ?  —  but 
it  is  still  more  odd  for  it  to  be  drawn,  not 
by  a  horse,  but  by  a  man.    The  name  really 


WHERE   THE   CHRYSANTHEMUM   GROWS      49 

means  man-carriage.  It  must  be  much  easier  to 
draw  this  small  'rikisha  than  that  one  which 
carries  two  people. 

The  'rikisha  man  agrees  to  take  us  about  the 
city,  so  we  get  in.  He  steps  between  the  shafts, 
and  taking  one  in  each  hand  he  trots  off,  drawing 
the  load  as  easily  as  your  pony  draws  the  dog 
cart.  Hour  after  hour  he  trots  on,  stopping  only 
when  we  ask  him.  Then  we  must  hold  fast,  for 
the  stop  is  so  sudden  that  we  are  liable  to  be 
spilled  out. 

Yokohama  is  quite  different  from  the  cities  of 
our  country.  The  buildings  on  both  sides  of  the 
narrow  streets  are  lower  than  they  are  at  home. 
There  are  few  horses  and  wagons  to  be  seen. 
Men  do  much  of  the  work  that  is  done  by  horses 
in  the  United  States.  We  see  many  'rikishas, 
and  occasionally  a  person  riding  in  a  sedan  chair, 
for  street  cars  are  not  common. 

Let  us  ride  out  in  the  country  where  farms  are 
very  small.  Instead  of  seeing  plows,  harrows, 
and  harvesters  in  the  fields,  we  see  men  tending 
the  crops  by  hand.  Many  rice  fields  are  to  be 
seen,  for  rice,  you  know,  is  the  chief  food  in  Japan. 


60 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


Patches  of  bamboo  are  common.  The  bamboo  is  a 
great  friend  to  the  Japanese  people.  It  serves 
them  for  water  pipes,  for  fan  and  umbrella  mak- 
ing, even  as  material  for  furniture  and  houses. 

Strange  to  say, 
this  good  friend 
is  used  even  as 
an  article  of  food, 
for  the  young 
shoots  of  the 
bamboo  are  as 
tender  as  aspar- 
agus. 

The  Japanese 
are  very  fond  of 
flowers  and  near- 
ly always  have 
them      in     their 

Fig.  21. — A  Bamboo  Grove. 

Courtesy  of  A.  a  Vr Oman.  homeS.  Some- 

times  their  gardens  glow  with  the  brilliant  hues 
of  chrysanthemums ;  sometimes  they  shine  with 
the  bright  tints  of  azaleas,  of  red  peonies,  and 
beautiful  blue  irises.  Sometimes  the  loveliest 
flowers  are  found  in  the  orchards,  and  when  the 


WHERE   THE   CHRYSANTHEMUM  GROWS       51 

cherry  trees  grow  white  with  blossoms  the  Japan- 
ese children  clap  their  hands  with  dehght.  As 
the  breezes  stir  the  branches  the  petals  drift 
down  almost  like  snowflakes.  But  before  they 
have  all  been  blown  away  their  beauty  is  cele- 
brated by  a  festival  in  which  old  and  young 
together  rejoice  in  the  feast  of  the  cherry  blos- 
soms. In  our  country  cherry  trees  are  planted 
for  their  fruit,  but  in  Japan  they  are  planted  for 
their  blossoms.     Is  not  this  a  beautiful  custom? 

Very  tiny  are  the  houses.  They  are  usu- 
ally but  one  story  in  height.  The  roofs  seem 
much  too  large  and  heavy  for  such  frail  walls  to 
support.  This  one  is  thatched ^  as  many  of  the 
roofs  in  the  country  are.  The  thatch  is  some- 
times of  grass,  and  sometimes  of  straw  or  reeds. 
It  is  bound  in  bundles,  and  then  tied  to  the 
rafters  of  the  building.  Then  a  man  with  a  great 
pair  of  shears,  such  as  we  use  for  cutting  hedges, 
trims  the  thatch.  The  roof  is  very  thick  and 
extends  for  some  distance  beyond  the  walls. 
Frequently  the  roofs  are  made  on  the  ground, 
and  then  raised  on  bamboo  poles. 

Of  course  much  dirt  collects  on  the  thatch. 


52  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

Seeds  lodge  there  also.  Because  of  this  we  see 
grass  and  weeds  growing  on  many  roofs.  Be- 
neath the  eaves  are  troughs  made  of  bamboo. 
Some  of  the  roofs  are  tiled  and  some  are  shingled. 
When  a  roof  is  to  be  tiled,  boards  are  laid  on  it 
and  upon  these  mud  is  placed.  The  tiles  are 
then  pressed  into  the  mud.  Japanese  shingles 
are  much  smaller  than  ours,  and  the  carpenter 
uses  bamboo  pegs  for  nails. 

Here  is  the  house  to  which  we  have  been  in- 
vited. Our  friends  see  us,  and  come  out  to  bid 
us  welcome,  as  we  step  on  to  the  veranda.  Little 
Kiku  makes  a  low  bow  and  assists  us  to  remove 
our  shoes.  Kiku  means  chrysanthemum,  for 
many  girls  in  Japan  are  named  from  flowers. 
Are  not  wistaria  and  hyacinth  pretty  names  for 
the  dainty  little  maidens?  The  Japanese  never 
wear  their  wooden  shoes  or  geta^  as  they  call  them, 
in  the  house.  You  will  understand  why  a  little 
later. 

The  door  does  not  swing  open  as  the  doors  in 
our  houses  do.  It  is  a  panel  that  slides  back 
and  forth,  having  a  frame  of  wood  and  being 
covered  with  paper.     The  walls  and  the  parti- 


WHERE   THE   CHRYSANTHEMUM  GROWS       53 

tions  between  the  rooms  are  of  this  same  material. 
The  panels  are  usually  about  three  feet  wide. 

The  partitions  between  the  rooms  are  arranged 
to  slide  in  grooves  made  in  the  ceiling  and  the 
floor.      Sometimes   the    partitions   are   of   plain 


Fig.  22, — luku's  Home. 
Courtesy  of  A.  C,  Vruman. 

paper  and  sometimes  they  are  ornamented  with 
beautiful  paintings.  It  may  be  a  picture  of 
Fuji-Yama,  the  sacred  mountain,  snow  capped 
against  a  sky  of  cloudless  blue.  Or  perhaps  one 
sees  soaring  through  the  clear  air  birds  of  mar- 


54  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

velous  plumage;  or  perhaps  it  is  a  garden  with 
blossoms  of  violet,  of  crimson,  or  of  gold.  Often 
these  partitions  are  taken  out,  and  the  whole 
house  is  thrown  into  one  room. 

If  Kiku  could  step  into  your  house,  she  would 
be  much  surprised  to  see  the  glass  windows.  In 
her  home,  and  in  many  others  in  Japan,  the  win- 
dows are  of  paper.  The  windows  are  called 
shoji.  They  are  much  like  the  paper  walls  be- 
tween the  rooms,  but  you  notice  that  the  paper 
is  white.  Paper  of  this  color  lets  in  more  light. 
About  two  feet  above  the  floor,  in  the  shoji  of 
some  houses,  there  are  pieces  of  glass. 

The  Japanese  are  skilled  paper  makers.  Even 
their  tissue  paper  is  tough  and  durable,  of  a  finer 
quality  than  that  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
Paper  is  used  for  window  panes  every  day  in  the 
year,  but  on  one  special  day  it  is  put  to  a  still 
more  curious  use.  That  is  the  day  of  the  festi- 
val for  boys.  Almost  every  flagstaff  in  the 
^'Flowery  kingdom''  is  decorated  with  paper 
fish,  sometimes  several  feet  in  length,  the  gift  of 
parents  or  friends.  With  wide-open  mouths  the 
fish  wiggle  and  twist  as  they  flap  to  and  fro  in 
the  breeze. 


WHERE   THE   CHRYSANTHEMUM   GROWS       55 

Our  friends  do  not  ask  us  to  take  chairs,  for 
there  is  not  one  in  the  house.  Instead,  we  sit 
upon  soft  white  mats  that  cover  the  floor.  Lit- 
tle Kiku  sits  very  quietly  with  her  feet  drawn 
up  under  her,  and  her  hands  hidden  in  the  wide 
sleeves  of  her  kimono. 

Now  you  see  why  we  left  our  shoes  at  the 
door.  It  would  not  do  to  soil  these  white  mats. 
They  are  quite  springy  to  the  step,  so  there  is 
no  soimd  of  heels  upon  the  floor  in  a  Japanese 
house.  The  mats  are  six  feet  long  and  three 
feet  wide,  and  about  two  inches  in  thickness. 
The  size  of  each  room  is  determined  by  the  num- 
ber of  mats  that  it  is  to  contain.  Would  twelve 
mats  cover  a  large  or  a  small  floor? 

Near  one  end  of  the  living  room  you  see  a  low 
platform  on  which  there  are  vases  containing 
flowers.  There  are  bright-colored  flowers  in 
nearly  every  room,  for,  as  I  have  told  you,  the 
Japanese  are  very  fond  of  them. 

In  your  home  the  same  pictures  remain  on  the 
walls  for  years.  In  Kiku's  home  they  are 
changed  frequently,  and  only  a  few  are  in  sight 
at  one  time.    A  Japanese  artist  paints  a  picture 


56  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

very  quickly.  He  uses  few  strokes  and  does  not 
show  as  many  details  as  would  one  of  our  artists. 

Kiku  goes  to  another  room,  and  brings  in 
tables — one  for  each  person.  You  open  your  eyes 
wide  in  surprise,  for  the  tables  are  only  about 
one  foot  high.  The  white  mats  that  cover  the 
floor  are  our  chairs.  The  maid  brings  in  the  din- 
ner served  in  dainty  dishes.  We  have  soup,  then 
salad,  and  finally  rice,  tea,  and  wafers.  The  tea- 
cups are  about  the  size  of  half  an  eggshell,  and 
the  saucers  as  large  as  butter  plates. 

The  tea  is  boiled  over  a  little  charcoal  brazier 
called  the  hibachi  (hi  ba'che).  These  are  the 
only  stoves  which  the  Japanese  have  in  their 
living  rooms  and  bedrooms.  In  the  kitchen 
there  is  a  sort  of  range  for  cooking. 

The  hibachi  may  be  a  round  or  square  box 
partly  filled  with  ashes  or  sand  and  about  as 
large  as  a  cracker  box.  The  teapot  is  placed 
on  a  three-cornered  support  which  is  pushed  into 
the  sand.  The  fuel  consists  of  a  few  bits  of  char- 
coal. On  cold  days  Kiku  curls  up  beside  one 
of  these  queer  stoves  and  tries  to  keep  warm. 

We  keep  warm  by  living  in  houses  that  keep 


WHERE   THE   CHRYSANTHEMUM  GROWS       57 

out  a  great  deal  of  cold,  and  by  having  hot  fires 
in  our  rooms.  When  the  people  of  Japan  are 
cold,  they  put  on  more  clothing.  Would  it  not 
seem  strange  to  attend  a  party  where  each  one 
of  the  company  sat  on  the  floor  beside  his  own 
stove?  We  might  see  such  a  sight  were  we  to 
visit  Kiku's  home  in  the  wintero 

Where  are  the  beds?  Kiku  has  never  seen  a 
bed  such  as  the  one  in  which  you  sleep  at  home. 
She  is  not  accustomed  to  snowy  sheets  and  soft 
fluffy  pillows.  In  Japan  the  mats  are  the  beds. 
See,  the  servant  is  putting  all  of  the  partitions 
in  place  so  that  there  may  be  enough  bedrooms. 
What  was  the  dining  room  a  moment  ago  will 
soon  be  used  as  three  bedrooms.  Now  some 
padded  quilts  are  brought  in.  Some  of  them 
are  spread  upon  the  mats,  and  some  are  to  serve 
as  covers.  It  is  very  little  trouble  to  make  the 
bed,  you  see. 

Look  at  those  little  wooden  boxes,  each  cov- 
ered with  a  roll  of  cloth.  You  cannot  imagine 
what  they  are  for,  I  am  sure.  They  are  Japanese 
pillows.  Over  each  is  spread  a  piece  of  paper  to 
take  the  place  of  a  pillow  slip.     You  will  think 


58  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

the  pillows  very  uncomfortable,  but  Kiku  does 
not.  She  is  wondering  how  we  will  enjoy  sleep- 
ing in  a  Japanese  house,  for  her  parents  have 
told  her  that  our  homes  are  quite  different  from 
hers. 

Even  in  the  country,  most  Japanese  houses 
have  bath  tubs,  and  every  night  each  member  of 
the  family  takes  a  hot  bath.  Many  of  the  bath 
tubs  are  round,  looking  a  little  like  a  half  bar- 
rel. In  one  side  of  the  tub  is  a  charcoal  stove 
whose  fire  heats  the  water. 

Not  all  Japanese  houses  are  like  this  one. 
Some  have  walls  made  of  plaster  instead  of 
paper,  and  some  are  made  of  lumber.  Stone 
and  brick  are  not  very  commonly  used  in  build- 
ing. One  reason  for  this  is  that  there  are  so 
many   earthquakes. 

The  last  sounds  that  we  hear  are  made  by 
the  servant  in  putting  up  the  shutters  that 
protect  the  shoji.  This  is  locking  up  the  house 
for  the  night.  We  are  soon  asleep  and  dreaming 
of  our  home  in  America. 


A  VISIT  TO  CHINA 

China  is  a  very  old  land.  Its  people  are 
backward;  most  of  them  know  almost  nothing 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  very  little  of  their 
own  country.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for 
there  are  very  few  railroads  in  this  country. 

The  Chinese  have  not  always  been  backward. 
They  taught  the  world  many  things.  They 
discovered  how  to  make  silk  and  they  invented 
printing,  the  compass,  gunpowder,  and  other 
things.  These  discoveries  and  inventions  were 
made  many  centuries  ago. 

In  the  fertile  portions  of  China  the  population 
is  very  dense,  for  the  farms  are  hardly  larger 
than  the  gardens  in  our  country.  Nearly  all 
the  work  on  the  farms  is  done  by  hand.  There  is 
a  man  cutting  grain  with  a  sickle  as  it  was  done 
thousands  of  years  ago.  After  the  grain  is  har- 
vested, women  and  children  will  pull  up  the 
short  stalks  that  remain.  They  will  carry  these 
home,  dry  them,  and  use  them  as  fuel.     Farm 


60  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

work  is  not  well  paid;  the  laborers  usually 
receive  about  ten  cents  a  day. 

Everywhere  we  see  canals.  Some  are  large, 
and  some  are  small.  We  see  many  curious 
boats  on  them.  People  travel  along  these 
canals  as  commonly  as  we  travel  along  roads. 
Many  farmers  take  their  produce  to  market  on 
boats. 

Along  the  canals  are  houses  within  a  few  feet 
of  the  water.  They  are  set  up  on  posts^  and 
are  entered  by  means  of  short  ladders. 

You  know  that  in  our  country  the  farm- 
houses are  scattered  along  the  roads.  They  are 
not  built  in  groups.  In  China  the  farmers  live 
in  settlements.  .There  are  sometimes  wide 
stretches  of  country  between  them  without 
houses. 

Usually  the  country  houses  are  but  one  story 
high.  Many  very  poor  people  build  their  homes 
of  mud  or  of  clay.  Sometimes  the  frame  of  the 
house  is  of  wood.  To  this,  strips  of  bamboo  are 
fastened,  and  mud  is  then  plastered  over  the 
bamboo.  Some  houses  have  thatched  roofs,  and 
some  are  covered  with  tiles. 


A   VISIT   TO   CHINA 


61 


Let  us  step  into  one  of  these  houses.  You  will 
think  it  quite  cheerless,  I  am  sure.  There  are 
no  carpets,  for  the  floors  are  simply  hardened 
mud.     The    partitions    are    made    of    strips    of 


Fig.  23.  —  A  Chinese  Home. 


bamboo  woven  in  and  out,  and  plastered  with 
mud.  There  are  chairs,  tables,  and  beds,  all 
made  of  bamboo. 

In  this  house  the  windows  are  of  paper,  and 
have  heavy  wooden  shutters.      In  many  homes 


62  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

the  windows  consist  of  a  lattice  work  of  bamboo. 
Pieces  of  thin  shell  are  tied  into  the  spaces  thus 
formed. 

There  are  no  stoves  such  as  we  have  in  our 
homes.  Here  is  a  sort  of  box  partly  filled  with 
sand.  In  it  the  fire  is  built.  In  some  houses 
the  stove  is  much  larger,  and  is  of  brick  and 
plaster.  People  put  on  extra  clothing  when  it 
is  cold.  They  even  carry  tiny  stoves  in  their 
sleeves,  and  they  have  a  sort  of  foot  lamp,  also. 

The  houses  in  the  cities  are  larger  and  more 
substantial  than  those  in  the  country.  They 
are  usually  made  of  brick  or  stone.  The  roofs 
are  generally  covered  with  tiles.  Often  mats 
stretch  across  the  street  from  roof  to  roof,  for 
the  streets  are  very  narrow.  These  mats  keep 
out  the  sunshine. 

There  are  no  fine  residence  sections  as  there 
are  in  our  cities.  The  hovel  of  the  very  poor 
man  often  stands  beside  the  home  of  the  man  of 
wealth. 

In  many  cases  the  family  of  the  merchant 
lives  in  the  back  part  of  the  store.  You  can 
see  some  of  the  children  observing  you  through 


A  VISIT   TO   CHINA  68 

the  open  door  as  you  make  your  purchases. 
They  think  your  clothes  very  odd. 

You  do  your  trading  by  means  of  coins  called 
cash.  In  the  center  of  each  there  is  a  small 
square  hole,  so  that  they  may  be  strung  on  a 
string  or  wire.  It  takes  about  twenty  cash  to 
equal  in  value  one  cent  in  our  money.  An  ordi- 
nary purse,  you  see,  would  be  of  no  value  to  you 
in  China. 

Although  the  streets  in  these  cities  are  very 
narrow,  there  is  much  business  done  in  them. 
People  hurry  and  push  their  way  along,  carrying 
goods  on  their  backs  or  on  poles  which  rest  on 
the  shoulders  of  two  men.  Here  comes  a  man 
riding  in  a  sedan  chair,  and  there  is  another 
riding  in  a  wheelbarrow  !  In  the  city  of  Shanghai 
there  are  about  two  thousand  wheelbarrows 
used  for  carrying  passengers.  Carriages  and 
wagons  are  seldom  seen  in  Chinese  cities. 

Here  is  a  barber  carrying  on  his  business 
right  in  the  street.  People  mend  shoes  and 
even  cook  meals  in  these  narrow,  crowded  streets. 

If  you  are  to  walk  about  in  a  Chinese  city  at 
night,  it  will  be  well  to  carry  a  lantern,  for  the 


64 


HOW   WE   ARE  SHELTERED 


streets  are  dark  and  dirty.     The  common  street 

lights  are  candles  placed  in  paper-covered  boxes. 

We  sometimes  travel  in  ships,   but  our  real 

homes  are  upon  the  land.     Many  of  the  Chinese 


Fig.  24.  —  Riding  in  a  Wheelbarrow. 

Coiirtesy  of  A.  C.   Vroman. 

have  no  homes  upon  the  land.  They  live  on 
boats  or  rafts.  These  floating  homes  are  to  be 
seen  along  some  of  the  rivers.  By  means  of 
ropes  they  are  fastened  to  the  banks  so  that  they 
cannot  drift  away. 
On  many  of  these  boats  there  are  tiny  vegeta- 


A  VISIT   TO   CHINA 


65 


ble  gardens,  and  a  few  fowls.  Here  children  are 
born,  and  here  they  grow  up.  Just  think  of 
spending  your  life  on  a  boat  or  a  raft !  There 
is  no  yard  in  which  to  play.     There  is  no  chance 


Fig.  25.  —  House  Boats. 

to  wander  through  fields  and  woods,  gathering 
flowers  and  nuts. 

There  is  a  roof  over  a  part  of  the  boat  to  keep 
out  the  bright  sunshine,  as  well  as  the  rain. 
See,  this  little  Chinese  child  is  tied  to  the  boat. 
This  will  prevent  it  from  falling  into  the  water. 
There  is  a  child  somewhat  older  with  a  barrel 


66  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

about  a  foot  long  tied  to  its  back.  What  can 
be  the  meaning  of  this  ?  We  are  told  that  should 
the  child  fall  overboard,  the  barrel  will  keep  it 
from  sinking. 

It  is  said  that  there  are  one  hundred  thousand 
people  in  the  city  of  Canton  living  in  these 
house  boats.  Look  at  the  map  of  China  and 
find  this  city. 


FILIPINO  HOUSES 

You  have  heard  of  the  PhiHppine  Islands,  I 
am  sure.  They  are  situated  thousands  of  miles 
to  the  westward  of  California,  and  not  far  from 
the  coast  of  China.  Although  these  islands  are 
so  very  far  from  us,  they  belong  to  the  United 
States. 

In  that  land  there  are  many  cone-shaped 
mountains  called  volcanoes.  At  times  fiery 
streams  of  molten  rock  pour  down  their  slopes, 
destroying  everything  in  their  path,  while  the 
air  is  filled  with  bits  of  rock  and  dust  hurled  from 
their  tops,  and  dense  clouds  of  vapor  form  above 
them. 

At  such  times,  as  well  as  at  many  other  times, 
earthquakes  shake  the  region.  So  violently  does 
the  earth  tremble,  that  trees  sway  to  and  fro, 
buildings  rock,  and  often  fall  to  the  ground,  while 
the  people  flee  in  terror. 

You  must  not  think,  however,  that  there  is 

67 


68  now   WE   AKE   SHELTERED 

nothing  pleasant  or  beautiful  on  these  islands. 
There  are  many  things  in  that  distant  land  with 
which  you  would  be  delighted.  The  Filipino 
children  never  wear  mittens,  and  they  do  not 
skate  nor  ride  in  sleighs,  for  it  is  always  summer 
where  they  live.  At  all  times  of  the  year  the 
sun  is  almost  directly  overhead,  for  the  Filipinos 
live  in  the  torrid  zone.  The  warm  sunshine  and 
the  abundant  rainfall  produce  great  forests. 
Mountain  and  plain  are  covered  with  trees  and 
plants  such  as  most  of  you  have  never  seen 
except  in  greenhouses.  Great  forests,  in  which 
the  vines  and  creepers  form  such  a  tangle  that  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  walk  through  them, 
stretch  for  miles. 

In  the  cultivated  portions  of  the  country 
there  are  fields  of  tobacco,  sugar  cane,  and  rice. 
Most  of  the  Filipino  children  can  pick  bananas 
from  the  trees  whenever  they  want  them,  while 
over  many  homes  the  cocoanut  tree  waves  its 
graceful  leaves. 

The  Filipinos  have  dark  skins  and  black  hair. 
Their  food,  dress,  homes,  and  language  differ 
from  yours  in  many  ways.     Some  of  the  people 


FILIPINO   HOUSES  69 

in  that  land  are  savages,  and  roam  through 
the  forests  almost  as  animals  do.  They  build 
no  homes,  and  many  of  them  have  never  seen  a 
white  person.  Many  of  the  Filipino  children, 
however,  go  to  school  as  regularly  as  you  do,  for 
there  are  a  large  number  of  American  teachers 
on  the  islands. 

Probably  you  have  seen  bamboo  used  for 
fishing  rods,  but  I  presume  that  you  would  be 
surprised  to  see  people  using  these  slender  poles 
in  building  their  homes.  The  Filipinos  use 
them  in  just  this  way,  however. 

Bamboo  is  really  a  grass,  yet  in  that  land  it 
sometimes  grows  to  a  height  of  fifty  feet  or  more, 
and  it  may  be  six  inches  in  diameter. 

A  Filipino  home  is  very  different  from  yours. 
The  houses  are  low,  being  seldom  more  than 
one  story  in  height.  The  buildings  rest  upon 
four  or  more  stout  posts  set  firmly  in  the  ground, 
the  floor  of  the  house  being  five  or  ten  feet  above 
the  surface.  If  you  were  to  enter  one  of  these 
houses,  you  would  do  so  by  means  of  a  short 
ladder  instead  of  by  a  flight  of  steps.  Do  you 
wonder   why   people   live    in    this  way?      It    is 


70 


HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


because  the  ground  is  so  damp.  In  the  open  space 
beneath  the  house,  hogs,  chickens,  and  tools  are 
kept.  The  framework  of  the  house  is  made  of 
pieces  of  bamboo  fastened  together  by  means 
of  rattan.     You  can  see  that  the  Fihpino  car- 


FiG.  26.  —  Filipino  Homes. 

penters  do  not  make  as  much  noise  as  our  car- 
penters do,  nor  do  they  leave  as  many  nice 
blocks  about  the  new  buildings. 

Often  the  walls  of  the  houses  are  made  of  nipa 
palm.  The  walls  are  really  nothing  but  mats 
made  of  nipa.     When  a  man  wishes  to  build  a 


FILIPINO   HOUSES  71 

house,  he  can  make  or  buy  as  many  of  these  mats 
as  he  needs.  There  is  no  danger  of  breaking 
the  windows  in  such  a  house,  for  they  are  simply 
openings  cut  in  the  walls.  Often  there  are 
shutters  of  nipa  which  may  be  raised  or  lowered. 

The  Filipino  does  not  shingle  his  house  as  we 
do,  but  you  must  not  think  that  it  has  no  roof. 
The  roof  is  so  well  thatched  with  grass  or  palm 
that  it  will  keep  out  rain  for  a  long  time.  I 
must  tell  you  another  strange  thing  about  these 
houses.  The  roof  is  made  on  the  ground,  and 
then  raised  on  poles,  and  set  in  place.  In  order 
to  keep  the  thatch  from  blowing  off,  bamboo 
poles  are  laid  on  the  roof,  and  are  tied  down. 

Let  us  enter  one  of  these  houses.  We  climb 
up  the  short  ladder,  and  walk  in.  The  house 
consists  of  but  one  room.  There  are  many 
houses  like  this  one,  but  some  contain  several 
rooms.  In  one  corner  of  the  room  we  see  a  bed 
of  hardened  mud;  this  is  not  to  sleep  on,  but  it 
is  the  place  on  which  the  cooking  is  done.  As 
there  is  no  chimney,  the  walls  of  the  house  are 
covered  with  soot. 

You   are   wondering   where   the   furniture   is. 


72  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

These  people  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  have 
much.  Those  mats  spread  on  the  floor  are  the 
beds.  The  table  is  of  bamboo  slats,  and  see, 
tied  to  one  of  the  legs  is  a  game  cock.  Through 
the  spaces  between  the  slats  which  form  the  top 
of  the  table,  bits  of  food  fall  to  the  floor,  and  so 
the  game  cock  does  not  go  hungry.  The  floor 
is  not  solid  as  it  is  in  your  home.  It,  also,  is 
made  of  bamboo,  placed  with  the  rounded  sides 
up. 

Such  homes  as  this  one  are  easily  made,  and 
are  very  cheap.  You  would  not  want  to  live 
in  one  of  them,  I  am  sure,  but  the  Filipino  people 
seem  perfectly  satisfied  with  them.  Many  of 
the  people  do  not  know  that  there  are  homes 
of  a  better  kind.  Houses  of  this  kind  do  not  last 
very  long.  Many  are  destroyed  by  earthquakes 
such  as  I  have  mentioned.  In  the  late  summer 
and  fall  terrible  winds,  called  typhoons^  sweep 
over  the  islands,  uprooting  trees  and  tearing  down 
houses.  In  our  country  we  call  such  storms 
hurricanes. 

Like  China  and  Japan,  the  Philippine  Islands 
produce  a  great  deal  of  rice.    The  plowing  and 


FILIPINO  HOUSES 


73 


cultivating  are  done  b}^  means  of  a  water  buffalo 
or  carabao.  This  is  a  large  awkward  beast  with 
flat  horns  about  liaK  a  yard  long.  Usually  the 
ground  is  covered  with  water  when  the  plowing 
is  being  done,  and  when  the  men  sow  the  seed, 


Fig.  27.  — a  Filipino  Village. 

they  wade  in  the  water.  Plowing  and  cultivating 
the  rice  fields  is  not  the  only  work  which  the 
water  buffalo  do.  They  take  the  place  of  horses 
in  drawing  loads  on  carts.  When  not  in  use,  they 
spend  their  time  in  lying  in  pools  of  muddy 
water. 


74  HOW    WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

Now  that  we  have  seen  something  of  the 
country,  let  us  visit  Manilaj  the  largest  city  on 
the  islands.  Manila  is  built  on  both  sides  of  a 
river  called  the  Pasig,  On  one  side  of  the  stream 
is  the  old  city.  Here  the  houses  are  built,  and 
the  people  live,  much  as  they  did  three  hundred 
years  ago.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  is 
the  new  city.  This  is  much  more  like  a  city  in 
our  own  country  than  is  the  old  one.  The  houses 
are  much  better  than  those  in  the  country,  but 
they  are  seldom  more  than  two  stories  high. 
Some  of  the  buildings  are  of  wood  and  some  are 
of  stone.  On  many  of  the  older  houses  we  see 
roofs  of  tile,  but  corrugated  iron  is  used  a  great 
deal  now.  Roofs  of  this  sort  are  not  likely  to 
fall  off  when  earthquakes  occur. 

Even  in  Manila  the  dwelling  houses  seldom 
have  windows  of  glass.  Instead,  shells  are  used. 
About  two  hundred  and  sixty  small  shells  are 
used  in  a  single  window.  The  shells  are  not 
transparent,  but  they  admit  a  soft  light  which 
is  very  pleasant.  In  these  city  houses  there 
are  beds,  but  they  are  often  of  bamboo.  You 
have  seen  cane-seated  chairs.     The   mattresses 


FILIPINO   HOUSES  75 

used  on  the  beds  are  of  just  such  material.  The 
legs  of  the  beds  are  placed  in  basins  of  water  in 
order  to  prevent  centipedes,  ants,  and  other  crea- 
tures from  crawling  up.  A  sort  of  roof  is  attached 
to  the  high  bedposts,  and  over  all  a  large  piece 
of  mosquito  bar  is  stretched. 

In  the  homes  of  the  wealthy  Filipinos  there 
is  rich  and  costly  furniture.  The  floors  are  of 
hard  wood,  and  are  beautifully  polished.  There 
are  musical  instruments,  pictures,  books,  and 
such  comforts  and  conveniences  as  are  found 
in  the  best  homes  in  our  own  country. 


IN  THE  LAND  OF  COCOANUTS 

If  you  were  to  sail  southwest  from  the  city  of 
San  Francisco  for  a  distance  of  about  four 
thousand  miles,  you  would  reach  the  land  of 
cocoanuts.  On  all  sides  of  the  Samoan  Islands 
stretch  the  blue  waters  of  the  great  Pacific. 
From  the  fleecy  clouds  about  the  mountain  tops, 
to  the  foam  of  the  waves  along  the  shore,  the 
islands  are  dressed  in  a  mantle  of  green.  Winter 
never  puts  the  laughing  streams  to  sleep  in  this 
land,  nor  spreads  his  spotless  robe  of  ermine 
over  all,  for  here  summer  is  always  queen. 

There  are  several  islands,  but  if  they  were  all 
united  in  one,  the  area  would  be  but  a  little 
greater  than  that  of  our  smallest  state.  Can 
you  name  it?  In  ages  past,  these  peaceful 
sunny  slopes  were  rudely  shaken,  while  fiery 
streams  of  lava  flowed  down  them,  and  volcanic 
dust  and  ashes  settled  upon  the  land. 

But  now  on  every  hand  we  see  palms  with  their 

76 


IN   THE   LAND   OF   COCOANUTS  77 

fanlike  branches,  ferns  of  various  kinds,  the 
cacao,  breadfruit,  banana  and  cocoanut  tree. 
The  cocoanut  palm  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  trees.  It  seems  to  love  the  restless  ocean, 
for  it  always  grows  where  sea  breezes  may  play 
among  its  graceful,  feathery  branches..  Many 
of  the  cocoanuts  sold  in  our  cities  come  from 
these  islands. 

This  is  a  land  of  contentment.  Food  is  easy 
to  obtain.  The  Samoans  do  not  need  to  prepare 
for  cold  weather,  for,  as  I  have  told  you,  they 
have  no  winter.  There  is  no  need  of  working 
from  morning  until  night,  so  these  island  dwellers 
find  plenty  of  time  to  rest  in  the  shade  of  tropical 
trees,  to  swim  in  the  clear  waters  of  the  ocean, 
and  row  over  them  in  their  canoes.  They  wear 
little  clothing,  and  that  of  the  lightest  weight. 
Their  brown  skin  glistens,  for  one  of  their 
curious  customs  is  to  rub  their  bodies  with  oil. 

Here  are  some  native  Samoan  houses.  As  you 
see,  they  are  made  of  grass  and  are  cone  shaped. 
Some  of  the  houses  are  thirty  or  forty  feet  in 
diameter.  Posts  about  six  feet  in  height  are  set 
in  the  ground,  in  the  form  of  a  circle,  and  grass  is 


78 


HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


woven  about  them.  This  forms  the  walls  of 
the  dwelling.  In  the  center  of  the  house  is  a 
post  much  taller  than  the  others.  It  may  even 
be  a  breadfruit  treeo 


Fig.  28.  —  A  Samoan  Feast. 

The  most  important  part  of  a  Samoan  house 
is  the  roof.  It  is  made  by  laying  poles  from  the 
wall  posts  to  the  central  pillar.  No  shingles  are 
laid  on  the  roof,  but  it  keeps  out  the  rain,  for  it 


IN  THE   LAND  OF   COCOANUTS  79 

is  carefully  thatched  with  the  long  leaves  of  the 
sugar  cane.  Branches  of  the  cocoanut  palm 
are  used  to  fasten  the  thatch  in  place.  Such  a 
roof  will  last  for  several  years.  You  would  think 
it  odd  indeed  to  see  a  family,  when  moving, 
take  the  roof  of  their  house  and  leave  the  house 
behind.  Our  friends  in  Samoa  sometimes  do 
this. 

A  native  house  is  but  one  story  in  height,  and 
it  usually  contains  but  one  room.  See  the  curious 
little  windows  the  houses  have.  They  are  simply 
openings  which  may  be  closed  by  grass,  woven 
like  that  in  the  wall.  The  woven  grass,  mat-like 
in  appearance,  takes  the  place  of  glass.  It 
hangs  down  on  the  wall  during  sunny  weather, 
but  when  clouds  darken  the  blue  sky,  the  Samoan 
"prepares  for  rain  by  fastening  it  across  the  win- 
dow opening. 

Mats  are  the  most  valuable  pieces  of  furniture 
in  this,  as  well  as  in  many  other  dwellings,  and 
some  of  them  are  very  expensive.  They  take 
the  place  of  beds  and  chairs.  What  curious  pil- 
lows these  are !  They  are  simply  pieces  of  bam- 
boo raised  on  short  legs.     Here  are  cups^  pails. 


80 


HOW   WE  AEE   SHELTERED 


and  other  utensils  made  of  the  shells  of  the 
cocoanut.  Are  you  wondering  where  the  stove 
is?  That  hole  in  the  earth  just  outside  of  the 
house  is  the  stove. 


Fig.  29.  —  Interior  of  a  Samoan  Home. 

The  building  of  a  house  in  Cocoanut  Land  is 
not  a  very  serious  undertaking.  In  fact,  it  is 
frequently  a  sort  of  wedding  celebration.  When 
a  newly  married  couple  wants  a  home,  the  relatives 
and  friends  help  them  build  it.  With  shouts  and 
gay  laughter  posts  for  the  walls  and  poles  for 
the  roof  are  collected.     Grass,  sugar  cane,  and 


m  THE   LAND   OF   COCOANUTS  81 

palm  leaves  are  brought.  The  roof  poles  are 
fastened  to  the  posts  by  means  of  the  fiber  of 
the  cocoanut  palm.  No  painting,  plastering,  or 
papering  is  done,  and  the  house  is  quickly 
completed. 


LIFE   IN  A  LOG  HOUSE 

The  bright  September  sunshine  was  filtering 
through  the  branches  of  the  trees  and  falUng  in 
golden  patches  upon  the  leaves,  as  a  heavy 
wagon,  covered  with  white  cloth,  and  drawn  by 
oxen,  came  to  a  stop  on  the  bank  of  a  river  in 
northern  Indiana.  In  the  wagon  was  a  family 
of  pioneers.  For  weeks  they  had  traveled  over 
mountains,  through  forests,  and  across  prairies, 
and  now  at  last  they  had  reached  the  spot  which 
was  to  be  their  future  home. 

You  may  be  sure  that  the  parents,  as  well  as 
the  children,  were  happy  to  reach  the  end  of 
their  long  journey.  All  helped  in  arranging  a 
camp,  for  they  could  have  no  other  shelter  than 
that  afTorded  by  the  covered  wagon,  until  the 
father  could  build  a  house. 

There  were  neither  lumber  nor  brick  yards  in 
the  vicinity,  for  this  was  in  the  year  1805,  just 
a  century  ago.     The  country  was  new,  and  Indi- 

82 


LIFE   IN   A   LOG  HOUSE  83 

ana  had  not  yet  been  made  a  state.  The  house 
must  be  made  of  logs,  so  Mr.  Harrington  went 
into  the  forest,  the  edge  of  which  was  but  a  few 
rods  away,  to  cut  down  trees.  Hour  after  hour 
and  day  after  day  his  ax  rang  out,  while  occa- 
sionally a  forest  giant  fell  to  the  earth  with  a 
crash. 

Wilber  and  Annette  enjoyed  these  bright 
autumn  days.  They  gathered  cat-tails,  rushes, 
and  great  bunches  of  golden-rod.  They  found 
clumps  of  hazel-nut  bushes,  tall  hickory  trees 
with  their  rough  bark,  and  walnut  trees  with 
widespreading  branches.  When  at  the  bidding 
of  the  frost  the  forest  trees  put  on  their  brilliant 
autumn  dresses,  the  children  were  as  busy  as 
the  squirrels,  gathering  a  supply  of  nuts  for  the 
winter. 

Wilber  liked  to  watch  his  father  cut  down  the 
trees,  trim  off  the  limbs,  cut  the  trunks  into  logs 
of  the  required  length,  and  notch  the  ends.  When 
the  logs  were  all  prepared,  they  were  one  by  one 
dragged  by  the  oxen  to  the  place  where  the  house 
was  to  stand. 

There  were  a  few  settlers  scattered  along  the 


84 


HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


river,  the  nearest  a  mile  away,  and  the  men  now 
came  to  help  Mr.  Harrington  raise  the  new 
house.  A  raisingj  which  was  quite  an  event  in 
those  days,  meant  putting  up  the  walls  of  the 
house,  and  raising  the  rafters  over  them. 

Two  logs  were  placed  on  the  ground,  notched 
sides  up,  parallel,  and  as  far  apart  as  the  house 

was  to  be  wide. 
Next,  two  logs  were 
placed  notches 
down,  across  the 
ends  of  the  first 
two,  so  that  the 
notches  fitted  to- 
gether. This  was 
repeated  again  and 
again,  until  at  last  the  walls  were  of  the  required 
height.  The  gables  were  made  by  building  the 
end  walls  higher  than  the  side  walls.  The  logs 
were  laid  one  upon  another,  each  being  shorter 
than  the  one  just  below  it.  The  ends  were 
cut  slanting  on  the  upper  side,  and  the  logs 
were  fastened  together  by  means  of  long  wooden 
pins  driven  into  auger  holes.     Now  poles  were 


Fig.  30.- 


-The  Home  of  Wilber  and 
Annette. 


LIFE  m  A  LOG  HOUSE  85 

raised  above  the  walls,  forming  rafters,  and 
wooden  pins  were  used  in  these  also. 

The  raising  was  completed  before  dark,  and 
as  Mr.  Harrington  could  do  the  remainder  of  the 
work  without  help,  his  kind  neighbors,  after  a 
hearty  supper,  started  homeward.  We  employ 
carpenters  to  build  our  houses,  but  the  pioneers, 
you  see,  were  their  own  house  builders. 

''When  can  we  move  into  the  house?''  asked 
Mrs.  Harrington  the  next  morning.  ''Just  as 
soon  as  I  can  put  the  shakes  on  the  roof,''  replied 
her  husband.  The  shakes  were  made  by  split- 
ting short  sections  of  logs  into  thin  boards. 
They  were  used  as  we  use  shingles  now. 

The  first  night  after  moving  in,  the  family 
was  obliged  to  sleep  on  the  floor  of  rough  boards, 
for  there  were  no  bedsteads.  Mr.  Harrington  did 
not  go  to  a  furniture  dealer  as  we  would  do,  but 
built  them  himself.  They  could  not  be  moved 
from  place  to  place  as  yours  can  be,  for  they  were 
nailed  to  the  walls  in  the  corners  of  the  rooms. 
Indeed  the  walls  formed  two  sides  of  each  bed, 
while  the  other  sides  were  made  of  rough  boards. 
Across  the  beds,  strips  of  deerskin  were  fastened, 


86  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

and  upon  these  were  placed  mattresses  filled  with 
dried  grass.  '^Next  fall/'  said  Mrs.  Harrington, 
^^we  will  fill  the  mattresses  with  corn  husks.'' 
Wilber's  bed  was  in  the  loft  When  he  went  to 
bed,  he  had  to  climb  a  ladder  fastened  to  the 
wall. 

In  the  large  room  which  served  as  kitchen, 
dining  room,  and  living  room,  Mr.  Harrington 
built  a  fireplace  of  stone,  with  a  great  chimney 
outside  of  the  house.  The  fire  in  the  fireplace 
furnished  the  only  means  of  heating  the  house, 
as  they  had  no  stoves.  Fastened  to  one  side  of 
the  fireplace  was  an  arm  of  iron,  so  made  that  it 
could  be  swung  from  side  to  side.  This  was 
known  as  the  crane.  Attached  to  the  crane 
were  three  iron  hooks,  and  by  means  of  these, 
kettles  and  pots  were  suspended  over  the  fire. 
When  Mrs.  Harrington  wanted  to  bake,  coals 
were  raked  out  on  to  the  broad  hearth,  and  a  tin 
oven  called  a  baker  was  placed  upon  them. 

During  the  long  winter  evenings  when  the 
snow  lay  deep  upon  the  ground,  and  the  wind 
whistled  through  the  tree  tops,  the  family  gath- 
ered  about   the   fire.     How   the   burning   wood 


LIFE  IN  A  LOG   HOUSE  87 

snapped,  and  how  the  flames  roared  up  the 
wide  chimney !  Sometimes  the  parents  told 
stories,  and  sometimes  they  helped  the  children 
with  their  studies,  for  there  were  no  schools  in 
the  neighborhood.  Wilber  used  to  dread  to 
leave  the  fire,  and  climb  the  ladder  to  the  cold 
loft,  for  although  the  cracks  between  the  logs 
were  chinked  with  thin  pieces  of  wood  and  mud, 
the  fine  snow  often  sifted  in. 

There  were  no  pohshed  chairs,  tables,  or 
dressers,  in  this  log  house.  All  of  the  furniture 
was  rough  and  was  made  by  Mr.  Harrington. 
There  were  no  carpets  on  the  floors,  and  no 
pictures  on  the  walls.  The  other  homes  in 
this,  and  in  many  other  parts  of  our  country, 
were  much  hke  that  of  the  Harringtons.  As  I 
have  said,  the  settlers  lived  far  apart,  but  they 
gladly  traveled  miles  in  order  to  help  one  another. 
It  was  a  long  distance  to  the  nearest  town,  and 
visits  to  it  were  made  only  when  necessary. 
The  whistle  of  a  locomotive  was  never  heard, 
and  there  were  no  telegraph  and  no  telephone 
lines.  There  was  no  public  library,  and  there 
were  neither  magazines  nor  newspapers  in  the 


88  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

home.  The  children  never  turned  on  the  gas 
nor  the  electric  light,  for  their  only  artificial 
light  was  furnished  by  tallow  candles.  Water 
could  not  be  obtained  by  simply  turning  a  tap, 
but  was  carried  in  pails  from  the  spring,  a  few 
rods  from  the  house. 

How  would  you  hke  to  live  in  such  a  home  as 
that  of  Wilber  and  Annette?  I  am  very  thank- 
ful that  you  have  the  countless  comforts  and 
opportunities  that  you  now  enjoy,  but  I  want 
you  to  know  something  of  the  hard  work,  courage, 
perseverance,  and  suffering,  which  these  cost. 
For  many  of  the  blessings  which  we  now  enjoy, 
our  thanks  are  due  the  brave  pioneers  who  settled 
in  the  wilderness.  Do  not  forget  that  some  of 
our  most  useful  and  noble  men  and  women 
lived  in  log  houses. 


LUMBERING 

Have  you  ever  spent  a  vacation  in  the  woods  ? 
Have  you  wandered  through  them  in  the  spring 
in  search  of  buttercups,  anemones,  and  honey- 
suckles? Have  you  gone  blackberrying  in  the 
summer?  Have  you  gathered  bright-colored 
leaves,  and  nuts  in  the  fall?  If  you  have  done 
these  things,  I  am  sure  that  you  love  the  trees. 

The  breeze  is  the  playfellow  of  the  trees.  He 
knows  them  all  by  name.  He  rustles  the  leaves 
of  the  hickory,  oak,  maple,  and  elm.  He  sighs, 
and  sings  among  the  slender,  dark  green  needles 
of  the  pine  trees.  The  long  feathery  branches 
of  the  cocoanut  and  date  palm  bow  gracefully 
as  he  passes  among  them. 

In  some  parts  of  the  world  there  are  great 
prairies  J  where  one  may  travel  many  miles  without 
seeing  a  tree;  while  in  other  regions  dark  forests 
stretch  for  hundreds  of  miles.  Can  you  give  a 
reason  for  this? 

89 


90  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

We  love  the  trees  because  of  their  beauty, 
and  because  of  the  peace  and  enjoyment  which 
they  offer.  They  are  of  great  benefit  to  us  in 
other  ways  also. 


Fig.  31.  —In  the  Forest. 

The  forests  furnish  us  with  a  large  part  of  the 
material  which  we  use  in  building  our  houses. 
Just  think  of  the  long  rows  of  wooden  buildings 
which  you  have  seen  in  the  city.  In  the  country, 
too,  there  are  many  houses  and  barns  built  of 
lumbero  The  work  of  cutting  the  trees  and 
changing   them   into   timbers,    boards,    shingles, 


LUMBERING  91 

and  laths,  is  called  lumbering.  I  am  going  to 
take  you  with  me  on  a  visit  to  a  lumber  camp. 

You  know  that  some  trees  drop  their  leaves 
every  autumn.  These  are  called  deciduous  trees. 
Other  trees  remain  green  all  of  the  year.  These 
are  evergreen  trees.  Both  deciduous  and  ever- 
green trees  furnish  lumber.  How  many  of 
each  kind  can  you  name?  In  our  country  the 
pine,  spruce,  hemlock,  and  fir  produce  most 
of  the  lumber  for  building  homes. 

When  the  frosts  of  autumn  are  painting  the 
leaves  of  the  oak,  maple,  and  hickory  in  yellow, 
crimson,  and  gold,  the  work  in  the  lumber  camp 
begins.  These  lumber  camps  are  far  from  towns. 
There  are  many  of  them  in  northern  Maine,  in 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  California,  Ore- 
gon, and  Washington.  Locate  these  states  on 
the  map.  Here  in  the  logging  camp  we  find 
three  large  buildings  made  of  rough  boards. 
This  one  is  the  blacksmith  shop,  where  the 
horses  are  shod,  and  the  tools  are  repaired. 
That  building  just  beyond  is  the  mess  house.  It 
is  the  boarding  house  of  the  lumbermen.  You 
will   not   find   fine   linen,    silverware,    and   cut- 


92 


HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


glass  on  the  table.  The  men  use  tin  plates  and 
cups,  and  steel  knives  and  forks.  There  is 
plenty  of  food,  but  it  is  plain. 


Fig.  32.  —  A  Logging  Campo 

Now  we  will  step  into  the  bunk  house.  This 
is  where  the  men  sleep.  The  house,  you  see, 
consists  of  one  large  room.  A  wide  shelf  running 
around  the  walls  is  partitioned  off  into  spaces 


LUMBERING 


93 


called   hunks.     Sometimes   there   are   two   rows 
of  them,  one  above  the  other. 

After  supper  the  men  gather  around  this 
great  stove  in  the  center  of  the  room.  For  a 
short  time  they  tell  stories  and  sing  songs.     They 


Fig.  83.  —The  Fall  of  a  Giant. 

begin  their  work  very  early  in  the  morning,  and 
so  they  do  not  sit  up  late. 

The  first  thing  done  in  the  fall  is  to  form  the 
camp.  Next,  roads  are  laid  out.  The  roads 
are  made  from  the  heart  of  the  forest  to  some 
stream,  or  to  a  railroad.     After  the  roads  have 


94  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

been  graded,  and  made  as  level  as  possible,  they 
are  sprinkled.  For  this  purpose  a  great  sprink- 
ling cart  is  driven  over  them.  After  the  water 
has  frozen,  more  is  put  on.  Sometimes  there  is 
a  layer  of  ice  on  the  road  more  than  a  foot  thick. 

The  workmen  now  attack  the  trees  with  axes 
and  saws.  There  is  a  forest  giant  nearly  ready 
to  fall.  A  man  is  driving  wedges  into  the  cut 
in  order  to  make  the  tree  fall  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion. See,  it  is  beginning  to  totter.  The  workmen 
give  a  shout  of  warning.  With  a  terrible  crash 
the  great  tree  falls  to  the  ground.  What  a  short 
time  it  took  the  men  to  cut  it  down !  It  has 
been  growing  for  a  hundred  years. 

Now  the  workmen  are  cutting  off  the  branches. 
They  are  not  valuable  for  lumber,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  to  move  the  trees  if  they  were  left  on. 

Here  are  men  loading  logs  on  to  sleds.  To  do 
this  requires  much  skill,  for  the  logs  might  do 
great  damage  if  they  rolled  off.  Those  heavy 
chains  are  used  to  bind  the  logs  to  the  sled. 
Each  teamster  is  anxious  to  haul  a  larger  load 
than  do  his  companions.  Day  after  day  the  work 
goes  on.     After  each  heavy  storm  a  snowplow 


LUMBERING  95 

must  be  run  over  the  roads  to  scrape  the  snow 
from  the  ice. 

As  spring  approaches^  great  piles  of  logs 
accumulate  along  the  banks  of  the  stream. 
When  the  sun  unclasps  the  icy  fingers  of  the 
frost  king,  these  logs  will  be  rolled  into  the 
water.     The  stream  will  carry  them  to  the  saw- 


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Fig.  34.  —  Loading  Logs  on  Sleds. 

mills  far  below.  The  mills  are  often  located  on 
falls  or  rapids.  Why?  Bangor,  Auburn,  Lewis- 
ton,  and  Augusta  in  Maine,  and  St.  Paul  in 
Minnesota,  are  so  located.     Find  these  places. 

Here  are  men  marking  the  ends  of  the  logs 
before  they  are  rolled  into  the  streamo  With 
their   axes   the   workmen    cut    out   letters    and 


96  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

figures  of  various  kinds.  Several  lumber  com- 
panies float  their  logs  down  this  stream,  but  each 
company  can  pick  out  its  own  logs  by  means  of 
its  mark.  Marking  the  logs  is  a  little  like  brand- 
ing cattle,  you  see. 

The  logs  do  not  float  to  the  sawmills  without 
any  stops.  They  lodge  against  rocks,  and  they 
strand  in  shallow  water.  In  order  to  keep  them 
moving  as  fast  as  possible,  men  called  drivers 
follow  them  downstream. 

Driving  is  exciting  and  dangerous  work.  The 
men  are  armed  with  long  poles.  In  one  end  of 
each  pole  there  is  a  strong  iron  hook,  by  means 
of  which  the  logs  are  pulled  and  pushed  about  in 
the  stream. 

See !  There  is  a  driver  actually  riding  on  a 
log  as  it  floats  down  the  river !  Now  he  springs 
from  that  one  to  another.  How  can  he  keep 
his  footing  ?  If  you  were  to  ask  him,  he  would 
tell  you  that  in  the  soles  of  his  shoes  there  are 
sharp  iron  spikes  which  prevent  him  from 
slipping. 

Here  is  a  place  where  some  logs  have  lodged. 
How  rapidly  they  collect !    On  they  come,  one 


LUMBERING 


97 


after  another,  and  crowd  against  the  upper  side 
of  the  pile.  Such  a  collection  of  logs  is  called 
a  jam. 


Fig.  35.  — A  Jam. 


Now  the  drivers  will  have  a  hard  piece  of  work. 
They  must  break  up  the  jam  as  soon  as  possible. 
They  wade  out  into  the  icy  water,  and  clamber 
over  the  jam.  Presently  they  find  the  particular 
logs  which  are  holding  the  rest  back.    They  pull 


98  HOW   WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

at  them  with  their  hooks,  but  cannot  loosen 
them.  The  pile  is  growing  every  minute.  Some- 
thing must  be  done  at  once,  so  some  dynamite 
is  exploded  in  the  pile.     With  a  great  roar  the 


Fig.  36.  —  Logs  going  up  Incline  to  Mill  at  Vicksburg. 

jam  breaks  up^  and  the  logs  start  again  on  their 
journey. 

Near  the  sawmills  are  places  where  the  logs 
are  collected  and  sorted.  These  are  called  booms. 
The  logs  are  driven  into  a  body  of  water  joining 


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Fig.  37. — A  Log  with  One  Slab  taken  off  ready  to  be  turned 
on  Car. 


LUMBEKTITG^  ICl 

the  mill,  and  then  floated,  one  at  a  time^  through 
a  narrow  channel  from  which  they  are  carried 
by  machinery  to  the  great  hungry  saws. 

One  end  of  the  log  is  pushed  against  a  saw 
which  rapidly  cuts  its  way  to  the  other  end. 


Pig.  38.  —  Squaring  a  Log. 

The  bark  and  a  little  of  the  wood  is  removedo 
This,  you  see,  makes  the  log  flat  on  one  side. 
The  log  is  then  turned  and  cut  on  another  sidoo 
This  process  is  repeated  until  the  log  is  a  great 
square  piece  of  timber.     It  is  then  sawed  into 


'.'JC?. 


^OW;  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 


smaller  timbers   or  boardso    The  slabs   cut  off 
to  square  the  log  are  used  in  making  lath. 

The  lumber  must  now  be  shipped  to  the  parts 
of  the  country  where  it  is  wantedo  Sometimes 
ships  can  go  up  the  rivers  to  the  places  where 
the  sawmills  are  located.  When  they  cannot; 
the  lumber  is  shipped  by  rail. 


Fig.  39.  —  Ships  unloading  Lumber. 


Chicago  is  the  greatest  lumber  market  in  our 
country.  Indeed,  there  is  none  larger  in  the 
whole  world.  Great  shiploads  are  sent  from 
the  pineries  near  Lake  Superior  and  the  northern 
part  of  Lake  Michigan.  Locate  Chicago,  and  the 
lakes  of  which  I  have  spoken. 

The  lumber  district  in  Chicago  is  a  very  inter- 


LUMBERmG  lOS 

esting  place  to  visit.  There  are  narrow  streets 
on  each  side  of  which  the  lumber  is  piled 
high  in  long  rows.  Here  much  lumber  is 
placed  on  cars,  and  sent  to  smaller  cities  and 
towns. 

You  know  that  trees  contain  a  great  deal  of 
sap.  Where  do  they  get  it  and  how?  When  a 
tree  has  been  cut  into  boards,  they  should  be 
allowed  to  dry  before  being  used.  In  the  lumber 
yards  the  boards  are  piled  so  as  to  allow  the 
air  to  circulate  between  them.  Sometimes  the 
boards  are  dried  by  means  of  artificial  heat. 
This  takes  about  a  week  only. 

When  the  saw  cuts  out  a  board,  it  is  rough  on 
both  sides.  You  know  that  many  of  the  boards 
that  we  use  in  building  houses  are  smooth  on  one 
or  both  sides.  Smoothing  the  boards  is  called 
planingo  Have  you  ever  seen  a  carpenter  plan- 
ing a  board?  Most  of  the  planing  is  done  in 
planing  mills.  When  a  board  is  to  be  planed,  it 
is  run  between  two  rapidly  revolving  rollers. 
These  carry  it  to  the  planes^  After  being  planed 
it  passes  between  other  rollers.  As  it  comes  out, 
it  is  placed  in  a  pile. 


104 


HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


There  are  great  forests  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
There  the  trees  are  very  large.  In  much  of  that 
region  there  is  httle  snow,  so  of  course  the  trees 
are  not  hauled  on  sleds.  Great  logs  are  laid 
on  the  ground  in  two  parallel  lines  like  the  rails 


Fig.  40.  —  Logs  in  a  Chute. 


of   a  railroad  track.     Across   these,   short   logs, 
hollowed  out  on  the  top  side,  are  placed. 

The  logs  really  form  roads,  and  are  called 
skids  or  chutes.  Logs  are  placed  on  these,  and 
dragged  to  a  sawmill,  a  train,  or  some  river. 


LUMBERING 


105 


Many   logs    are    floated    down    the    Columbia" 
River,  and  some  great  rafts  of  logs  are  floated 
to  San  Francisco. 

In  northern  and  central  California  there  are 
forests   of  redwood   trees.     They   average   three 


Fig.  41.  —  Cutting  a  Redwood. 


or  four  feet  in  diameter,  while  some  are  even 
fifteen  feet. 

When  the  men  cut  the  very  large  trees,  they 
do  not  stand  on  the  ground,  but  on  a  platform 
from  four  to  ten  feet  high.     They  do  so  because 


106 


HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


the  lowest  part  of  the  tree  does  not  make  very 
good  lumber. 

There  are  few  streams  in  that  region  large 
enough  to  float  such  great  logs.  On  this  account 
the  sawmills  are   often   in   the   forest   close   to 


Fig.  42.  —  A  Train  Load  of  Logs  in  the  Sierras. 

where  the  trees  are  cut.     The  logs  are  generally 
loaded  on  to  cars  by  means  of  donkey  engines. 

In  some  parts  of  California,  the  timber  is  cut 
so  high  up  the  mountain  slopes  that  it  can  be 
reached  neither  by  railroads  nor  wagon  roads. 


LUMBERmG  107 

It  is  sent  to  the  valleys  below  in  a  very  curious 
way.  A  great  strong  trough  of  wood  is  built 
in  the  form  of  a  letter  V.  It  is  called  a  flume. 
A  stream  of  water  is  turned  into  the  flume. 
The  boards  are  dropped  into  the  water,  and  are 


Fig.  43. — Boards  ready  to  be  Flumed. 

carried  down  very  rapidly.  In  Fresno  County 
there  are  several  flumes,  each  of  which  is  more 
than  forty  miles  in  length. 

In  our  Southern  States  there  is  still  another 
timber  belt.    There  the  yellow  pine  is  the  most 


108 


HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


common  lumber  tree.  There  are  nearly  ten 
thousand  sawmills  in  the  Southern  States. 
Pensacola  and  Mobile  are  important  lumber- 
exporting  cities.  Can  you  find  them  on  the 
map? 


Fig.  44.  —  Boards  going  down  a  Flume. 


You  see  how  important  our  forests  are.  If 
we  are  to  have  homes  built  of  lumber,  we  need 
the  help  of  many  men,  for  we  cannot  go  to  the 
forest  and  get  it.  Name  the  different  kinds  of 
work  necessary. 


LUMBERING  10& 

We  have  a  great  deal  of  timber  in  our  country 
to-day,  but  it  will  not  last  always.  The  trees  are 
being  cut  very  rapidly,  and  many  are  destroyed 
every  year  by  fire.  We  should  take  great  care 
of  our  forests,  and  plant  trees  where  others  have 
been  cut.  Unless  this  be  done,  there  will  be  little 
timber  left  when  you  are  grown. 


HOW  BRICKS  ARE   MADE 

In  nearly  every  city  there  are  long  rows  of 
brick  buildings.  Some  of  these  are  dwelling 
houses  occupied  by  a  single  family,  some  are 
tenement  houses  in  which  many  famiUes  live, 
while  others  are  hotels  or  business  houses  many 
stories  high. 

Here  by  the  roadside  is  some  damp  clay.  It 
clings  to  our  shoes.  See  how  the  wheels  of  the 
wagons  roll  it  up  as  they  pass  along.  Take  a  bit 
of  it  in  your  hand;  you  can  mold  it  into  any 
form  you  wish.  It  is  from  material  such  as  this 
that  the  brick  for  our  buildings  is  made. 

Thousands  of  years  ago  the  people  of  Egypt, 
Assyria,  Babylonia,  and  other  eastern  countries, 
molded  clay  into  bricks  and  dried  them  in  the  sun- 
shine. Bits  of  grass  or  straw  were  mixed  with 
the  clay  to  bind  the  particles  together.  There 
was  little  timber  in  these  countries,  but  there 
was  plenty  of  clay.     The  climate  is  so  dry  that 

110 


HOW  BRICKS  ARE  MADE 


111 


some  of  those  ancient  bricks  have  been  preserved 
to  this  day. 

In    Mexico,    Arizona,    CaUfornia,    and    other 
parts   of  the   West,   there   are   many   dweUings 


Fig.  45. — An  Adobe  House. 


made  of  sun-dried  bricks.  Such  homes  are  called 
adobe  houses.  Most  of  them  were  built  when 
lumber  was  more  difficult  to  obtain  than  it  is 
to-day,  but  many  of  them  are  still  inhabited. 

Most  bricks  are  now  made  by  machinery.     In 
order  to  understand  how  the  work  is  done  we 


112  HOW   WE    ARE   SHELTERED 

will  visit  a  brickyard.  The  process  is  carried 
on  in  somewhat  different  ways  in  different  places, 
yet  it  varies  little  throughout  the  world. 

As  we  approach  the  brickyard  we  see  several 
tall  chimneys  rising  above  long,  low  sheds.  We 
see  men  and  boys  moving  to  and  fro,  carts  drawn 
by  single  horses,  and  as  we  come  nearer  we  hear 
the  sound  of  machinery. 

Here  men  are  plowing.  This  loosens  the  clay 
so  that  it  can  be  taken  up  in  scrapers.  We  follow 
one  of  the  scraper  loads  of  clay  to  the  foot  of  an 
inclined  plane  on  which  there  is  a  track.  A 
bridge  is  built  over  the  track  at  the  lower  end. 
Directly  beneath  a  hole  in  the  middle  of  the 
bridge  is  a  small  car.  The  team  draws  the  clay 
on  to  the  bridge ;  one  horse  steps  on  one  side  of 
the  hole,  and  one  on  the  other;  the  scraper  is 
turned  over,  and  the  clay  falls  into  the  car. 

When  the  car  is  full,  an  engine  at  the  top  of 
the  incline  draws  it  to  the  mill.  Here  the  clay 
is  crushed  to  a  powder  between  a  revolving 
circular  platform  of  iron  and  two  great  iron 
wheels.  Any  chance  stones,  as  well  as  the  clay, 
are  crushed  in  this  mill. 


Fig.  46.  —  A  Car  Load  of  Clay  going  to  the  Mill, 


HOW  BRICKS  ARE  MADE  115 

In  the  bottom  of  the  circular  platform  there 
are  very  narrow  openings  through  which  the  fine 
material  drops  upon  a  wide  moving  belt.  The 
edges  of  this  belt  are  higher  than  the  middle ;  so 
the  clay  does  not  fall  off.  The  belt  carries  the 
powdered  clay  to  a  box  in  which  there  are  large 
iron  knives  revolving.  A  spray  of  water  falls 
constantly  upon  the  clay.  The  knives  mix  the 
clay  and  water  thoroughly.  This  process  is 
called  tempering. 

From  this  box  the  clay  is  fed  into  another,  at 
the  bottom  of  which  it  is  pressed  into  molds. 
Each  mold  holds  six  bricks.  The  empty  molds 
are  sanded  by  machinery ;  this  prevents  the  bricks 
from  sticking  to  them.  As  fast  as  the  molds 
are  filled  they  are  pushed  by  machinery  on  to  a 
table.  A  man  with  a  trowel  scrapes  off  any  clay 
that  may  be  clinging  to  them,  and  a  second  man 
turns  them  upside  down  over  wooden  trays. 
These  trays  are  placed  on  carts  and  drawn  to 
the  drying  sheds.  Machinery  carries  the  molds 
back  to  the  press,  where  they  are  again  filled. 

Now  let  us  follow  this  load  of  bricks  to  the 
sheds.    They  are  in  long  rows  with  roads  be- 


116  HOW    WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

tween  just  wide  enough  for  the  carts.  The  roofs 
keep  off  the  rain  and  the  bright  sunshine.  The 
trays  containing  the  bricks  are  placed  on  frames 
or  shelves.  In  each  of  these  sheds  there  are 
more  than  ten  thousand  bricks.  In  eight  or  ten 
days  the  bricks  will  be  dry  enough  to  move,  and 
they  will  then  be  hauled  to  the  kiln.  Here  is  a 
kiln  being  filled.  It  is  a  great  oven  rectangular 
in  shape,  but  many  kilns  are  circular.  There 
are  three  walls  of  brick,  leaving  the  oven  open 
on  one  side.  Watch,  the  men  are  just  beginning 
to  fill  it.  They  pile  the  bricks  up  in  such  a  way 
as  to  leave  spaces  between  them,  which  allows 
the  heat  to  circulate  freely.  When  filled,  the 
kilns  contain  about  fifty  thousand  bricks  each. 

When  a  kiln  is  filled,  the  fourth  wall  is  built 
up,  and  the  heat  is  gradually  turned  on  until  the 
desired  temperature  is  reached.  In  about  four 
days  the  heat  is  slowly  turned  off,  for  the  bricks 
must  not  cool  too  rapidly.  As  the  cooling  also 
requires  about  four  days,  a  week  or  more  is  needed 
to  complete  the  process  of  firing  the  bricks. 

The  very  smooth  bricks,  which  you  have  often 
seen  in  the  front  walls  of  fine  houses,  are  known 


Fig.  47.— Filling  a  Kiln. 


HOW  BRICKS  ARE  MADE 


119 


as  pressed  bricks.  A  finer  quality  of  clay  is  re- 
quired for  these,  than  for  ordinary  bricks.  When 
the  clay  comes  from  the  mold,  it  is  in  the  form  of  a 
long  bar.     This  has  the  same  width  and  thickness 


Fig.  48. — General  View  of  a  Brickyard. 


as  a  brick,  but  may  be  fifteen  or  twenty  times  as 
long.  This  bar  of  clay  is  moved  along  by  ma- 
chinery to  a  great  wheel  or  cylinder  having  wire 
spokes.  The  distance  between  two  adjacent 
wires  is  equal  to  the  width  of  a  brick.    As  the 


120  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

wheel  turnS;  the  wires  cut  the  bar  of  clay  into 
bricks. 

The  bricks  are  now  carried  by  machinery  to 
a  machine  where  they  are  powerfully  pressed. 
They  are  then  loaded  on  to  small  cars,  and  run 
into  a  dryer.  This  is  a  great  metal  oven,  in  which 
the  cars  remain  for  about  twenty-four  hours, 
after  which  they  are  run  into  a  kiln.  The  firing 
requires  ten  or  twelve  days. 

Pressed  bricks  are  much  more  expensive  than 
ordinary  bricks.  This  is  the  reason  they  are  gen- 
erally used  in  the  front  rather  than  in  all  parts 
of  a  building.  Such  bricks  are  of  many  different 
colors.  The  pressed  bricks  made  in  Milwaukee 
are  famous  for  their  good  qualities. 

Bricks  are  made  in  many  parts  of  our  country, 
and  in  other  countries  as  well.  In  many  places 
they  are  not  made  during  the  winter,  because 
the  frost  cracks  them  while  drying.  In  California 
they  are  made  at  all  times  of  the  year.  Can 
you  tell  why  ?  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and 
Illinois  are  the  most  important  brick-making 
states. 

And  now  we  are  ready  to  see  how  a  brick  house 


HOW   BRICKS   ARE  MADE  121 

is  made.  Bricks,  sand,  and  lime  are  drawn  to 
the  spot  where  the  building  is  to  stand.  Of 
course  it  would  not  do  to  make  walls  of  loose 
bricks.  They  must  be  held  firmly  together, 
and  for  this  purpose  mortar  is  used. 

Here  is  a  workman  putting  lime  into  a  great 
box.  He  puts  into  the  box  two  or  three  times 
as  much  water  as  lime.  Then  he  puts  in  sand 
that  has  been  screened,  and  with  a  large  hoe  he 
mixes  the  sand,  water,  and  lime  so  thoroughly 
that  the  three  substances  are  combined  in  one. 
The  clothes  of  the  workman  are  covered  with 
white  spots,  for  the  mortar  spatters  as  he  works 
it.  Now  all  is  ready  for  the  helpers  who  carry 
mortar  and  bricks  to  the  bricklayers.  The 
bricks  are  laid  in  a  thin  coating  of  mortar.  The 
workman  lays  several  bricks  in  a  row,  taps  them 
with  his  trowel,  and  scrapes  off  the  extra  mortar 
that  clings  to  them.  The  mortar  between  the 
bricks  is  called  the  joints.  The  bricks  are  so  laid 
that  the  joints  do  not  form  continuous  vertical 
lines.  Laying  the  bricks  in  this  way  is  called 
breaking  the  joints.  Is  there  any  advantage  in 
breaking  the  joints? 


122 


HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 


As  the  walls  grow,  openings  are  left  for  the 
doors  and  windows.  In  large  buildings  the  bricks 
and  the  mortar  are  carried  to  the  upper  stories 
by  elevators  or  by  means  of  ropes  and  pulleys. 


Fig.  49.  —  Early  Home  of  Longfellow. 


The  interior  of  a  brick  building  is  finished  about 
as  is  the  interior  of  a  wooden  one.  Here  is  a 
picture  of  one  of  the  oldest  brick  houses  in  the 
United  States.  It  is  in  Portland,  Maine.  It  was 
built  in  the  years  1785-6.    The  early  hfe  of  Henry 


HOW  BRICKS   ARE  MADE  123 

W.  Longfellow  was  passed  in  this  house.  Name 
some  poem  written  by  Longfellow.  Although 
the  building  is  not  very  large,  the  workmen 
were  nearly  two  years  in  making  it.  Would 
you  not  like  to  see  this  old  house? 


HOUSES   BUILT  OF  STONE 

Houses  made  of  wood  do  not  last  very  long. 
The  lumber  slowly  decays  on  account  of  exposure 
to  the  weather.  Many  wooden  buildings  are 
destroyed  by  fire.  There  are  few  wooden  houses 
more  than  one  hundred  years  old  in  our  country. 
Stone  is  a  very  durable  building  material.  When 
exposed  to  the  weather,  it  decays  much  more 
slowly  than  does  wood.  Animals  do  not  bore 
into  it  as  they  do  into  wood.  Stone  buildings 
are  not  destroyed  by  fire  as  wooden  ones  are. 
There  are  houses  of  stone  in  Europe  that  have 
stood  for  hundreds  of  years.  Portions  of  Windsor 
Castle,  in  which  the  king  of  England  lives,  were 
built   five   centuries   ago. 

Stone  is  very  heavy  to  handle.  On  this  ac- 
count it  is  not  shipped  as  extensively  as  is  lumber. 
Whenever  possible,  it  is  shipped  by  water,  as  it 
costs  less  to  ship  material  by  boat  than  by  train. 
There  are  many  kinds  of  rock,  but  only  a  few  are 

124 


HOUSES  BUILT  OF   STONE 


125 


used  in  building.  The  most  important  are 
granite,  sandstone,  limestone,  marble,  and  slate. 
The  work  of  digging  the  stone  from  the  earth 
is  called  quarrying.  Quarrying  is  expensive 
work,  for  the  great  blocks  of  stone  cannot  be 
handled    without    machinery.      Sometimes    the 


Fig.  50.  — Windsor  Castle. 


stone  is  found  at  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and 
sometimes  it  is  far  below  the  surface.  Stone 
quarries  are  not  as  deep  as  some  coal  mines, 
however.  There  are  more  than  five  thousand 
stone  quarries  in  our  country,  and  they  furnish 
work  to  about  seventy  thousand  men. 


126  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

You  have  heard  of  the  ^^ granite  hills  of  Maine/' 
and  you  know  that  New  Hampshire  is  called  the 
^^  Granite  State /^  There  is  much  granite  in 
other  New  England  states,  as  well  as  in  many 
other  parts  of  our  country. 

Granite  was  once  in  a  melted  condition.  It 
was  forced  up  from  within  the  earth  when 
in  this  state,  and  was  afterward  cooled  and 
hardened.  Granite  is  very  hard  and  will  sustain 
a  great  weight.  It  does  not  weather  easily,  and 
it  takes  a  good  polish.  Because  of  these  qualities 
it  is  used  very  extensively  in  building. 

Some  of  the  granite  quarries  of  New  England 
are  located  on  small  islands  near  the  coast. 
Many  of  those  on  the  mainland  are  not  far  from 
the  water.  This  makes  shipment  cheaper  than 
it  would  otherwise  be. 

Granite  is  not  found  in  layers  as  sandstone  and 
limestone  are.  It  can,  however,  generally  be 
broken  along  lines  known  as  joint  planes.  Holes 
are  driven  into  the  rock  a  few  inches  apart. 
Sometimes  powder  is  placed  in  these  holes,  and 
the  rock  is  blasted^  but  generally  iron  wedges  are 
driven  into  the  holes,  and  the  blocks  of  rock  are 
split  off  in  this  way. 


HOUSES  BUILT   OF   STONE  127 

See,  those  machines  hfting  the  great  blocks 
of  stone  are  called  derricks.  How  easily  they 
raise  blocks  that  weigh  many  tons.  The  steam 
or  electricity  which  works  the  machinery  has 
greater  strength  than  any  giant  in  old-time 
fairy  tale.  Cranes  swing  the  blocks  around  and 
lower  them  on  to  a  vessel  or  a  car.  The  same 
giant  who  works  the  derrick  is  laboring  here, 
too.  The  blocks  of  stone  are  smoothed  by  means 
of  chisels.  If  columns  are  wanted,  they  are 
turned  in  a  lathe  as  is  wood.  Hard  as  this  rock 
is,  the  polished  surfaces  are  easily  scratched. 
On  this  account  the  columns  are  protected  by 
cases  of  wood  when  they  are  shipped.  New  Eng- 
land produces  more  than  one-half  of  the  granite 
used  for  building  in  our  country. 

You  are  all  quite  familiar  with  sand.  You 
have  seen  it  in  the  streets  and  in  the  fields. 
Every  stream,  as  it  journeys  on  its  way  to  the 
sea,  carries  sand.  The  waves  of  .every  lake,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  ocean,  are  grinding  rock  into 
sand,  and  hurling  the  sharp  grains  against  other 
rocks.  The  streams,  the  lakes,  and  the  ocean 
are  wonderful  mills,  and  the  sand  grains  are 
their  tools. 


128  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

Take  a  handful  of  sand,  and  drop  it  into  a 
glass  jar  partly  filled  with  water.  When  the 
sand  has  thoroughly  settled,  you  will  find  it 
arranged  in  layers.  Now  if  you  could  change 
these  layers  into  stone,  you  would  have  sand- 
stone. When  the  sand  which  every  stream  carries 
reaches  the  ocean,  it  settles  to  the  bottom. 
The  water  carries  a  substance  to  the  sand  grains 
which  binds  them  firmly  together.  It  is  not 
glue,  yet  in  Mother  Nature's  hands  it  acts  as  does 
a  magic  glue.  No  man  nor  machine  with  all 
the  power  and  glue  imaginable  could  do  this 
work.  Indeed,  it  depends  upon  the  substance 
which  old  Dame  Nature  chooses  as  to  whether 
or  not  the  rock  will  easily  crumble  or  be  worn 
away  by  running  water.  Other  material  is 
deposited  above,  so  that  in  time  the  pressure  on 
the  sand  is  very  great.  This  helps  in  changing 
the  sand  into  stone.  All  of  the  sandstone  that 
is  now  a  part  of  the  land  was  formed  in  this  way, 
and  was  then  very  slowly  raised  above  the  water. 
Rock  formed  in  this  manner  is  called  sedimentary 
rock. 

Sandstone   is   found   in   many   states,   but   is 


HOUSES  BUILT  OF   STONE  129 

chiefly  quarried  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  New 
York,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  Cahfornia. 
Locate  these  states. 

The  ocean  is  full  of  life.  Fishes  of  many  shapes 
and  colors  swim  gracefully  about  in  the  gardens 
of  the  sea.  Upon  the  rocks  are  countless  animals 
living  within  their  shell  homes.  There  are 
other  animals,  some  of  them  very  small,  that 
build  outside  skeletons.  After  the  shellfish, 
starfish,  sea  urchins,  and  many  other  animals 
die,  their  skeletons  are  slowly  changed  into  stone. 
We  see  that  even  the  tiny  animals  of  the  ocean 
furnish  us  with  material  from  which  we  build 
houses. 

Limestone,  like  sandstone,  is  sedimentary 
rock.  The  movements  which  take  place  very, 
very  slowly  in  the  rocks  of  this  wonderful  old 
earth,  lift  some  of  the  limestone  above  the  sur- 
face of  the  water.  Limestone  is  very  widely 
distributed,  but  it  is  quarried  chiefly  in  the 
Mississippi  valley.  There  are  many  limestone 
quarries  near  the  city  of  Chicago.  Joliet,  not 
far  from  Chicago,  is  nicknamed  ^^  Stone  City.'' 

Limestone  is  used  for  other  purposes  besides 


130 


HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


house-building.  Bricks  and  stone  are  laid  in  a 
material  called  mortar.  This  same  material  is 
used  in  plastering  houses.  Mortar  is  made  by 
mixing  lime,  water,  and  sand.  If  the  mortar 
is  to  be  used  in  plastering,  hair  is  mixed  with  it 


Fig.  61.  — A  Limestone  Quarry,  Joliet,  111. 

also.  This  holds  the  particles  together.  Lime  is 
made  by  heating  limestone  in  great  ovens  called 
limekilns. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  school  children  did  not 
use  notebooks  very   commonly.      Instead,  they 


Courtesy  of  the  Vermont  Marble  Company. 


Fig.  62.  —  Marble  Quarry  at  Proctor,  Vermont. 


HOUSES  BUILT   OF  STONE  133 

used  slates.  We  did  our  number  work  and  our 
language  work  on  slates,  and  handed  them  in 
to  be  corrected.  Slates  are  made  from  a  rock 
called  slate.  It  is  composed  of  fine  particles  of 
clay.  These  have  collected  on  the  floor  of  some 
body  of  water,  and  have  gradually  been  changed 
into  a  stone  called  shale.  After  a  time,  if  there 
is  much  heat  and  pressure,  the  shale  is  changed 
into  slate. 

Slate  can  be  split  into  very  thin  sheets,  and  on 
this  account  it  is  often  used  on  the  roofe  of  houses 
instead  of  wooden  shingles.  These  stone  shingles 
are  about  one-eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness, 
from  three  to  fourteen  inches  wide,  and  from 
seven  to  twenty-four  inches  long.  Most  of  the 
slate  used  in  our  country  is  quarried  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, Vermont,  Maine,  and  Massachusetts. 

Our  most  beautiful  building  stone  is  marble. 
Marble  is  simply  limestone  that  has  been  changed 
by  much  heat  and  pressure.  It  is  of  different 
colors,  such  as  white,  blue,  and  green.  Marble 
is  very  durable,  and  takes  a  beautiful  polish. 
Marble  statues  made  hundreds  of  years  ago  still 
delight  us  with  their  beauty. 


184  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

About  four  hundred  years  before  Christ  was 
born,  the  Greeks,  who  loved  beautiful  things, 
built  the  Parthenon  of  white  marble.  Beautiful 
marble  has  been  quarried  at  Carrara,  Italy,  for 
centuries,  and  some  of  it  has  been  shipped  to 
America.  We  now  have  many  marble  quarries 
of  our  own.  Vermont  produces  more  of  this 
stone  than  does  any  other  state.  Find  Rutland, 
Vermont,  which  is  called  ^^  Marble  City.'^  There 
are  also  quarries  in  Georgia,  New  York,  Tennessee, 
Massachusetts,  and  California. 

It  is  said  that  in  1836,  William  F.  Barnes 
traded  a  horse,  worth  seventy-five  dollars,  for 
the  land  on  which  the  marble  quarries  at  West 
Rutland,  Vermont,  are  now  located.  This  land 
is  now  worth  millions  of  dollars. 

At  first,  quarrying  was  very  slow  work.  The 
blocks  of  marble  were  hauled  by  teams  a  distance 
of  twenty-five  miles,  but  in  1857  a  railroad  was 
built  to  the  quarries. 

Let  us  look  down  into  a  quarry.  This  one  is 
about  three  hundred  feet  deep.  On  the  floor  are 
machines  moving  very  slowly  back  and  forth. 
They  are  called  channelers.    They  run  on  tracks 


Courtesy  of  the  Vermont  Marble  Company. 

FiQ.  63.  —  Marble  Quarry  at  Proctor,  Vermont. 


HOUSES  BUILT  OF  STONE 


137 


on  each  side  of  which  they  cut  a  groove  about 
one  inch  wide.  Sometimes  these  grooves  are 
cut  to  a  depth  of  ten  feet. 

The  saws  that  do  the  cutting  have  no  teeth. 
They  are  of  soft  iron  or  wire  driven  back  and  forth 


\'\'^ 

^ 

^j 

[^ 

M^ 

L^^ 

_^ 

i 

1 

^^^^iP 

^-  -^ 

f?^f^i|^|H||^K^ 

^#^ 

1 

1 

1 

Courtesy  of  the  Vermont  Ma'-hif'  Company. 


Fig.  54.  —  Marble  Quarry  at  West  Rutland,  Vermont. 

by  machinery.  Grains  of  sand  are  washed  into 
the  cut  to  take  the  place  of  sawteeth.  The 
sand  really  does  the  cutting ;  the  saws  only  move 
it  to  and  fro.  The  blocks  are  loosened  by  driving 
wedges   into   holes   bored   a   few   inches   apart. 


138  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

Derricks  lift  the  blocks  out  of  the  quarries. 
Cars  haul  them  to  the  mills,  where  they  will 
be  prepared  for  use. 

Whole  buildings  are  not  commonly  made  of 
marble.  Steps,  columns,  and  fronts,  are  often 
of  this  material.  Floors,  also,  are  sometimes 
made  of  marble. 

A  house  built  of  stone  means  a  great  deal,  you 
see.  It  reminds  us  of  the  formation  of  the  rock, 
of  the  quarrying,  of  the  cutting  and  polishing, 
of  the  shipment,  and  of  the  work  of  the  stone 
mason. 


ARTIFICIAL   STONE 

Probably  you  have  seen  many  beautiful 
buildings  which  were  apparently  constructed 
of  stone  such  as  is  obtained  from  quarries,  but 
which  were  really  built  of  stone  made  by  man. 
Old  Mother  Nature  makes  stone  very,  very 
slowly.  Perhaps  she  requires  thousands  of 
years  to  form  a  layer  of  limestone  one  foot  in 
thickness.  Man  can  make  a  block  of  stone  a 
foot  thick  in  a  few  minutes.  Such  material 
is  known  as  artificial  stone,  or  concrete. 

Concrete  is  not  a  new  material,  for  the  Romans 
used  it  hundreds  of  years  ago.  They  did  not, 
however,  make  the  blocks  hollow  as  they  are  now 
often  made. 

In  the  manufacture  of  concrete,  crushed  stone, 
sand,  and  cement  are  thoroughly  mixed.  Some- 
times the  mixing  is  done  by  hand,  but  it  is  gener- 
ally done  by  machinery.  The  crushed  stone  and 
gravel  form  the  main  part  of  the  mixture.    The 

139 


140  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

spaces  between  the  bits  of  stone  are  filled  by 
sand  grains,  while  the  particles  of  cement  fill 
the  tiny  spaces  between  the  grains  of  sand. 
Sometimes  the  sand  to  be  used  is  washed  to 
free  it  from  impurities. 

The  mixture  is  shaped  into  blocks  in  iron  molds. 
These  are  simply  boxes  without  tops,  the  sides 
of  which  can  be  raised  and  lowered  by  machinery. 
The  molds  are,  of  course,  of  different  sizes. 

While  one  man  shovels  the  crushed  material 
into  the  mold,  another  pounds  it  down  with  a 
sledge  hammer.  When  the  mold  is  about  half 
full,  a  wooden  box  without  ends,  and  as  long  as 
the  mold  is  wide,  is  placed  crosswise  in  it.  The 
mold  is  now  filled,  the  material  being  pounded 
down  as  before.  When  it  is  quite  full,  it  is 
smoothed  off  on  the  top  with  a  trowel. 

One  of  the  workmen  now  turns  a  wheel,  thus 
lowering  the  sides  of  the  mold.  Resting  on  the 
bottom  of  the  mold  is  a  block  of  soft,  wet  stone. 
It  does  not  seem  like  stone  because  it  is  so  soft. 
This  block  is  carefully  tipped  over  on  to  a  heavy 
board,  and  the  wooden  box  taken  out.  This 
leaves  a  hole  in  the  stone  as  large  as  the  box. 


ARTIFICIAL   STONE  141 

In  order  that  the  stone  may  dry  slowly,  it  is 
put  under  a  shed,  or  covered  with  straw  or  cloth, 
and  sprinkled  frequently  for  about  a  week. 
It  is  then  allowed  to  dry  in  the  sunshine  for 
several  days. 

Frequently  •  the  blocks  of  artificial  stone  are 
rough  on  one  side,  thus  resembling  natural 
stone  that  has  been  chipped.  This  effect  is 
produced  by  placing  on  the  bottom  of  the  mold 
a  form  like  that  desired.  The  material,  being 
pressed  in  on  top  of  this,  takes  the  proper  im- 
pression. 

Besides  the  ordinary  building  blocks,  much 
ornamental  building  stone  is  produced.  These 
ornamental  pieces  are  often  used  on  the  fronts 
of  brick  buildings.  The  ornamental  work  is 
first  drawn,  and  the  drawings  then  carved  in 
wood.  You  will  be  interested  in  knowing  that 
the  carving  is  done  in  just  the  reverse  order  to 
that  in  which  it  will  appear  in  the  stone. 

After  being  carved  the  wooden  models  are  cut 
into  strips.  The  strips  are  fitted  tightly  together 
and  placed  on  the  bottom  of  a  mold.  After  the 
material  from  which  the  stone  is  made  has  been 


142  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

pressed  on  top  of  the  design,  the  block  is  care- 
fully turned  upside  down.  Removing  the  strips 
of  wood  is  a  delicate  operation,  and  requires  a 
skillful  workman.  The  design  is  now  carefully 
gone  over,  and  all  errors  or  imperfections  cor- 
rected.    The  blocks  now  dry  as  do  the  others. 

In  making  the  blocks  of  concrete  for  a  house, 
each  piece  is  numbered  so  that  the  builders  may 
know  just  where  each  stone  is  to  be  placed. 
There  is  no  cutting  in  order  to  make  pieces  fit, 
and  there  is  therefore  no  waste  material. 

Artificial  stone  is  stronger  than  brick,  and  more 
durable.  As  our  supply  of  lumber  is  constantly 
decreasing,  and  as  the  quarrying  and  shipment 
of  stone  is  expensive,  concrete  is  becoming  quite 
important  as  a  building  material. 


NAILS 

What  a  hammering  and  pounding  goes  on 
while  a  frame  house  is  being  built.  Most  of  it 
is  due  to  the  driving  of  nails.  Without  these 
useful  little  articles,  such  wooden  houses  as  many 
of  us  live  in  could  not  be  constructed.  The 
floors,  walls,  shingles,  lath,  and  other  parts  of  a 
building,  are  held  in  place  by  means  of  nails. 

To-day  nails  are  very  common  and  very  cheap. 
You  know  that  when  your  father  wants  some, 
he  does  not  need  to  make  them  himself.  Instead, 
he  buys  them  at  a  hardware  store.  There  was  a 
time  when  all  nails  were  made  by  hand.  What 
a  slow  process  it  must  have  been.  In  the  city 
of  Birmingham,  England,  as  many  as  sixty  thou- 
sand persons  were  once  engaged  in  this  work. 
As  the  wages  were  very  low,  much  of  it  was  done 
by  women  and  children.  In  the  early  days,  nail 
making  was  carried  on  in  many  of  the  homes  in 
New  England.    The  nails  were  made  from  iron 

143 


144  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

rods  which  were  sold  in  bundles.  Pieces  of  the 
right  length  were  cut  from  the  rods,  and  held 
in  a  vise  while  one  end  was  flattened  into  a 
head. 

This  method  would  not  do  at  all  at  the  present 
time.  Nails  are  now  made  by  machinery  in 
great  mills.  In  some  places  the  iron  to  be  used 
is  rolled  into  thin  bars.  While  hot,  these  bars 
are  cut  into  strips  each  as  wide  as  the  length  of 
the  nails  to  be  made.  A  machine  cuts  the  strips 
into  pieces  of  the  right  length,  and  fashions  a 
head  on  one  end  of  each. 

Most  nails  are  not  of  the  kind  just  described. 
They  are  round  instead  of  flat,  and  are  made  of 
steel  wire.  The  wire  is  in  great  coils  which  is 
unwound  by  machinery,  and  cut  into  pieces. 
The  machine  also  points  one  end  of  each  piece, 
and  heads  the  other.  More  than  a  ton  of  nails 
is  often  made  by  a  machine  in  a  day. 

Whenever  we  build  a  house,  we  are  indebted 
to  the  men  who  are  working  in  the  iron  mines  of 
Alabama,  or  of  Pennsylvania,  or  of  the  Lake 
Superior  Region,  for  steel  wire  is  made  from 
iron.     But  these  are  not  the  only  men  who  help 


NAILS  145 

US,  for  the  iron  ore  must  be  smelte'd,  shipped, 
and  refined. 

Many  people  build  houses  without  the  use  of 
nails.  The  Eskimo  uses  none  in  his  home  of 
snow  and  ice.  The  Indian  tepee  and  the  hut  of 
the  Pygmy  are  built  without  nails.  Our  Japa- 
nese friends  sometimes  use  wooden  pegs,  and  I 
have  told  you  that  they  were  used  in  making 
log  houses.  In  my  grandfather's  barn,  I  have 
seen  nails  of  oak,  that  had  been  in  use  for  twenty- 
five  years.  Name  other  things  that  sometimes 
take  the  place  of  nailsc 


GLASS 

How  many  beautiful  things  we  see  from  our 
windows  every  dayc  Probably  you  have  been 
awakened  by  the  morning  sunshine  streaming 
into  the  window  of  your  room.  Perhaps  from 
this  same  window  you  have  looked  out  upon 
garden,  fieldS;,  or  woods^  when  the  whole  earth 
was  bathed  in  soft  moonlight.  Have  you  stood 
beside  a  window  when  the  warm  spring  rain  was 
falhng,  and  the  apple  trees  were  sending  showers 
of  pink  and  white  blossoms  to  the  ground? 

It  is  not  chiefly  because  of  the  many  beauti- 
ful things  which  oui^  windows  enable  us  to  see, 
that  they  are  valuableo  Think  of  living  in  a 
house  without  light.  You  would  not  want  to 
endure  it  for  a  single  day;  yet  for  ages  people 
had  no  windows  in  their  habitation  s^  and  many 
do  not  use  glass  to-dayo  We  need  plenty  of  light 
in  our  homes^  both  for  convenience  and  for 
healtho 

146 


GLASS  14? 

I  have  told  you  of  the  Eskimo  who  uses  a  piece 
of  clear  ice  for  a  windoWo  You  remember  that 
in  many  FiHpino  houses^  small  pieces  of  shell  are 
usedo  What  sort  of  windows  do  the  Japanese 
people  have? 

You  may  be  surprised  to  learn  that  sand  is 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  glass.  There  is  in 
sand  a  material  called  silicao  This^  when  fused 
or  melted  with  soda,  and  some  other  things, 
becomes  transparent,  and  is  known  as  glasSo 
Not  all  sand  is  of  the  right  kind  for  glass  making, 
and  on  this  account  the  factories  are  located 
near  the  places  where  the  best  sand  is  to  be 
foundo 

After  the  sand  has  been  washed,  burned,  and 
sifted  to  remove  impurities,  it  is  placed,  with  the 
other  materials,  in  a  tank  inside  of  a  furnace. 
The  temperature  in  the  furnace  is  sometimes  fifty 
times  as  high  as  that  of  the  boiling  point  of 
watero  Do  you  know  at  what  temperature 
water  boils? 

This  high  temperature  causes  the  silica  and 
other  substances  to  fuse^  After  a  time  the  tem- 
perature is  lowered  until  the  mass  is  in  a  pasty 


148  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

conditioiio  Now  a  workman  sticks  one  end  of 
a  long  blowpipe  into  the  glass,  and  twists  it 
about  until  a  large  piece  of  the  paste  becomes 
attached  to  the  tube.  Next  he  places  the  other 
end  of  the  pipe  in  his  mouth,  and  blows  through 
ito  As  he  blows,  the  mass  of  glass  expands  into 
a  pear-shaped  bodyo  This  he  rolls  upon  a  fiat 
piece  of  marble,  and  when  it  becomes  somewhat 
cool,  he  heats  it  again,  and  the  process  is  repeated. 
Occasionally  he  swings  the  whole  mass  over  his 
head,  holding  one  end  of  the  pipe  in  his  hands. 
Gradually  the  pear-shaped  mass  changes  into 
a  cylindero  It  grows  until  it  is  about  as  long 
as  a  man  is  tall,  and  perhaps  a  foot  in  diameter„ 
After  blowing  again  into  the  pipe,  the  workman 
puts  a  finger  over  the  open  end,  and  heats  the 
glasSo  The  expansion  of  the  air  breaks  the  closed 
end  of  the  cylinder.  By  means  of  a  cold  iron  the 
glass  is  cracked  where  the  blowpipe  is  attached 
to  it,  and  so  separated  from  it.  With  a  diamond 
the  inside  of  the  cylinder  is  now  scratched 
lengthwise,  and  a  cold  iron  is  moved  along 
the  scratch.  This  causes  the  cylinder  to  crack 
along  the  same  line.    The  glass  is  again  placed 


GLASS  149 

in  the  oven,  where  it  softens  and  begins  to 
flatten.  In  order  to  make  it  perfectly  flat  and 
smooth,  wooden  tools  are  usedo  When  this 
work  is  finished,  the  glass  is  cut  into  various 
sizes  and  shapes  by  means  of  a  diamond.  When 
curved  lights  of  glass  are  wanted,  blocks  of  iron 
of  the  same  shape  are  used  on  which  to  flatten  ito 
In  the  year  1608  some  glass  workers  were  sent 
from  London  to  America,  and  the  next  year 
they  began  to  manufacture  glass  about  one 
mile  from  Jamestown,  Virginia^  Now  there  are 
about  four  hundred  glass  factories  in  the  United 
StateSo  More  glass  is  manufactured  at  Pitts- 
burg than  at  any  other  city  in  our  country. 
For  what  else  is  Pittsburg  noted? 


FIRE  AND   ITS  USES 

When  the  biting  winds  of  winter  are  driving 
the  snow  before  them,  and  streams  and  lakes 
are  sealed  with  ice,  our  homes  are  cozy  and 
warm  because  of  the  fires  in  them.  Like  many- 
other  things  that  we  enjoy,  we  are  so  accus- 
tomed to  fire  that  we  do  not  realize  how  much 
it  means  to  us.  It  is  one  of  our  greatest  bless- 
ings, however,  and  without  it  our  lives  would 
be  very  different  from  what  they  now  are. 
If  you  were  in  some  forest  without  matches, 
how  would  you  make  a  fire,  and  how  would  you 
cook  by  means  of  it,  if  you  did  discover  how  to 
make  fire?  This  is  a  problem  which  people 
were  a  long,  long  time  in  solving.  How  long  ago 
man  discovered  how  to  produce  fire,  and  how  he 
came  to  make  the  discovery,  no  one  knows. 
Seeing  sparks  produced  by  striking  two  stones 
together  may  have  suggested  the  idea,  or 
rubbing  one  piece  of  wood  upon  another  until 

150 


FIRE  AND  ITS  USES  151 

they  ignited  may  have  led  to  it.  At  any  rate 
it  was  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  ever  made. 

A  very  old  method  of  obtaining  fire  is  rapidly 
to  whirl  a  small  stick,  one  end  of  which  is  in 
a  hole  in  a  larger  piece  of  wood,  between  the 
palms  of  the  hands.  Underneath  the  hole,  very 
fine,  dry  material  is  placed.  Sometimes  fire  can 
be  produced  by  this  means  in  a  few  seconds, 
and  at  other  times  one  or  even  two  minutes  are 
required.  Compare  this  with  the  time  required 
when  a  match  is  used. 

Another  way  of  producing  fire  is  to  take  a 
piece  of  bamboo  and  split  it  into  two  half  cylinders. 
Across  the  edge  of  one  of  these  the  sharp  edge 
of  another  piece  of  the  same  material  is  rubbed 
rapidly,  very  much  as  one  would  handle  a  saw. 
On  this  account  the  process  is  sometimes  called 
sawing. 

The  Moros,  who  live  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
carry  their  fire-making  apparatus,  which  con- 
sists of  a  piece  of  bamboo,  a  bit  of  china,  and 
some  tinder,  in  a  case  of  bamboo.  When  fire 
is  wanted,  the  bamboo  is  held  in  the  left  hand 
in  an  upright  position,  while  with  the  right,  it 


152  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

is  struck  slanting  blows  with  the  china.  In  this 
way  sparks  are  produced  which  light  the  tinder. 

No  doubt  you  have  seen  sparks  fly  from  be- 
neath the  feet  of  horses  when  they  were  traveling 
on  a  stony  road,  or  on  a  paved  street.  Sparks 
may  be  produced  by  striking  a  piece  of  flint 
against  a  piece  of  rock  containing  iron.  By 
carrying  pieces  of  these  rocks  with  them,  people 
had  a  means  of  making  fire.  This  led  to  the  use 
of  the  flint  and  steel,  which  were  found  in  the 
homes  of  the  early  settlers  in  this  country. 

In  order  to  make  the  starting  of  the  fire  as 
easy  as  possible,  some  very  dry  material  called 
tinder  was  carried  in  a  small  tin  box  called  a 
tinder  box.  Sometimes  small  pieces  of  wood 
called  spunks  were  carried  in  the  box.  These 
were  tipped  with  sulphur,  and  the  sparks  would 
light  them  quite  readily.  When  men  went  on 
a  journey,  they  carried  the  flint,  steel,  and  tinder 
in  a  bag  of  deerskin. 

You  can  see  from  this  how  difficult  it  was  to 
obtain  fire  in  the  past.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
some  people  worshiped  it,  and  that  fires  were 
kept  burning  for  months  and  even  years  at  a 


FIRE   AND  ITS   USES  .     153 

time.  Some  of  the  Indians  used  to  bury  the 
fire-making  apparatus  with  their  dead,  for  they 
beUeved  that  they  would  need  it  in  the  Ufe  to 
come. 

In  early  times  people  naturally  used  wood  as 
a  fuel,  as  it  was  found  in  so  many  places,  and 
burned  readily.  Partly  because  of  the  need  of 
fuel,  people  followed  streams  when  traveling  in 
a  prairie  country.  Why  is  timber  usually  found 
along  rivers? 

Primitive  people  built  their  fires  on  the  ground, 
sometimes  inside  the  tent  or  hut,  and  sometimes 
outside.  These  fires  took  the  place  of  stoves,  and 
here  the  cooking  was  done.  At  night  all  sat 
around  the  fire  while  the  burning  logs  snapped, 
and  the  smoke  and  flame  rose  upward  into  the 
tree  tops.  What  strange  shadows  danced  among 
the  trees,  and  upon  the  surface  of  the  stream 
just  beyond  the  firelight.  When  the  fire  got 
low,  the  shadows  crept  closer  to  it,  and  when  it 
brightened  up  again,  they  retreated.  Even  more 
wonderful  were  the  things  seen  in  the  fire  itself. 
Birds  and  animals,  and  human  forms  and  faces, 
appeared  and  disappeared  in  the  changing  fire- 


154  HOW   WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

light.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  children  of  the 
forest  were  superstitious. 

By  and  by  people  improved  upon  the  camp- 
fire  by  building  the  fireplace  and  the  chimney. 
This  made  it  possible  to  have  a  fire  in  the  house 
without  smoke,  and  it  also  made  cooking  much 
easier.  The  fireplaces  were  so  deep  and  wide 
that  very  large  pieces  of  wood  could  be  placed 
in  them.     Often  the  fire  would  last  all  night. 

It  is  not  very  long  since  stoves  came  into 
general  use.  At  first  many  people  were  afraid 
of  them,  but  they  soon  saw  their  great  value. 
A  stove  requires  much  less  fuel  than  a  fireplace. 
It  gives  out  more  heat,  and  is  very  much  more 
convenient  for  baking  and  cooking. 

In  time  man  found  that  coal,  which  was  once 
wood,  could  be  used  as  fuel.  This  was  very  im- 
portant, for  coal  lasts  longer  than  wood,  makes 
a  hotter  fire,  and  is  found  in  many  places  where 
wood  is  scarce.  The  use  of  coal  makes  it  easy 
to  heat  large  houses  by  means  of  furnaces.  In 
another  place  I  will  tell  you  about  the  formation 
and  mining  of  coal. 

When  your  great-grandfathers  were  patiently 


FIRE   AND  ITS  USES  155 

making  fire  by  means  of  the  flint  and  steel,  they 
did  not  dream  that  you  would  be  able  to  produce 
a  hot  fire  in  an  instant  by  simply  igniting  a  stream 
of  gas.  No  carrying  of  wood  or  coal,  no  arrang- 
ing of  kindling,  no  emptying  of  ashes,  yet  many 
men  work  in  various  ways,  and  in  various  places, 
in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  enjoy  this 
wonderful  fire. 

Wood,  coal,  and  gas  are  not  the  only  kinds  of 
fuel  used.  Name  others  with  which  you  are 
familiar.  In  Iowa  and  Nebraska  bright  yellow 
ears  of  corn  are  sometimes  burned.  Little  timber 
grows  there,  and  when  corn  is  very  cheap,  it  does 
not  pay  to  ship  it  to  market.  In  China  the  very 
poor  people  collect  weeds  in  the  fields,  and  by 
the  roadsides,  which  are  dried  and  used  as  fuel. 
The  kind  of  fuel  used  depends  largely  upon  what 
can  be  obtained  most  cheaply.  What  do  you 
bum  in  your  home,  and  where  does  it  come 
from? 

A  fire  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  in 
a  house.  How  comfortless  a  home  would  be 
without  one  in  winter.  When  people  are  shiver- 
ing with  cold,  they  find  it  very  difficult  to  read, 


156  HOW  WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

study,  sew,  or  do  many  other  things.  Much  of 
our  civihzation  is  due  to  fire.  When  man  is 
without  fire,  he  must  eat  his  food  raw  as  savages 
do.  This  is  both  degrading  and  unhealthful. 
Because  of  fire  it  is  possible  to  take  long  journeys 
into  regions  where  food  cannot  be  obtained, 
for  cooked  and  canned  food  can  be  preserved  for 
a  long  time.  I  think  you  will  agree  that  fire  is 
one  of  our  greatest  blessings. 


HOW  COAL  IS   MADE  AND  MINED 

The  air  was  filled  with  whirling,  dancing  snow- 
flakes.  All  day  they  had  been  fluttering  down 
from  the  gray  sky.  They  spread  a  soft  white 
mantle  over  the  fields,  hiding  all  of  the  rough 
places.  The  apple  trees,  stretching  out  their 
leafless  branches,  looked  dim  and  shadowy. 

Uncle  George  laid  down  his  book  and  put  a 
fresh  supply  of  coal  in  the  grate.  Then  he  looked 
out  into  the  blinding  storm.  '^I  declare,''  said 
he,  '^I  hope  that  everybody  in  the  village  has 
coal  enough  to  last  until  this  blizzard  is  over. 
It  would  be  rather  serious  to  be  without  fuel 
just  now.'' 

''Where  does  our  coal  come  from?"  asked 
Herbert. 

^^This  coal  came  from  the  eastern  part  of  Penn- 
sylvania," replied  his  uncle,  turning  to  a  map 
which  hung  on  the  wall.  ''It  is  called  hard  or 
anthracite  coal.    Most  of  it  is  shipped  from  the 

157 


158  HOW   WE   ARE  SHELTERED 

cities  of  Wilkesbarre  and  ScrantoHo  Soft  or 
bituminous  coal  is  mined  in  many  stateSo^^ 

^^How  is  coal  formed?''  asked  Fostero 

^'Long  ages  ago/'  said  Uncle  George,  ^Hhis 
country  looked  very  different  from  what  it  does 
to-day.  There  were  great  marshes  and  swamps 
where  now  there  are  none.  In  the  marshes  were 
gloomy  forests.  There  were  ferns  many  feet  in 
height.  Great  vines  stretched  from  tree  to  tree^, 
and  creepers  covered  the  ground.  No  human 
eyes  ever  saw  these  dark  forests,  with  their  thick 
undergrowth,  for  man  had  not  then  appeared 
upon  the  earth. 

'^As  the  trees  and  other  plants  died,  they  fell 
into  the  marshes.  In  time  a  great  deal  of  vege- 
tation accumulated.  Gradually  it  was  covered 
with  mud  brought  to  the  marshes  by  the  slowly 
flowing  streams.  The  mud  pressed  upon  the 
vegetation  and  hardened  it  somewhat.  In  this 
way  it  was  changed  into  a  substance  called 
peat 

^' There  is  peat  in  the  old  marsh  on  the  north 
end  of  the  farm,'^  continued  Uncle  George. 
^'Many  extensive  peat  beds  are  found  in  our 


HOW  COAL  IS  MADE  AND  MINED  159 

country;  in  Canada,  Ireland,  Sweden,  Russia, 
and  other  parts  of  the  world.'' 

^'Is  peat  used  for  anything?''  asked  Foster. 

'^Yes,"  replied  his  uncle,  ^^peat  is  used  as  a 
fuel.  Many  people  in  Ireland  burn  nothing  else. 
The  peat  is  cut  out  of  the  bogs  in  blocks.  They 
are  then  dried  and  sometimes  pressed.  As  the 
peat  is  obtained  near  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
it  is  not  very  expensive  to  dig  it. 

^^  The  layers  of  mud  which  bury  the  peat  deeper 
and  deeper  in  the  swamps,  change  it  more  and 
more.  In  time  it  becomes  a  very  soft  brown 
coal  called  lignite.  The  next  step  in  the  process 
of  coal  making  gives  us  the  common  soft  coal 
called  bituminous.  After  this  comes  anthracite 
or  hard  coal." 

^'Does  it  take  a  great  deal  of  vegetation  to 
make  a  ton  of  coal?"  inquired  Herbert. 

^'Yes,"  answered  Uncle  George.  '^Perhaps 
it  took  a  layer  of  vegetation  more  than  one 
hundred  feet  in  thickness  to  form  a  layer  of  coal 
six  feet  thick. 

'^  During  the  coal  age  there  were  many  changes 
in  the  land.    Sometimes   the  water  was  quite 


160  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

deep  in  the  marshes.  Then  much  sediment 
was  brought  in  by  the  streams.  At  other  times 
the  marshes  were  very  shallow,  and  a  great  deal 
of  vegetation  grew  in  them.  In  time  the  sedi- 
ment became  rock,  and  the  vegetation  was  changed 
into  coal.  Therefore  the  miners  find  layers 
of  coal  between  layers  of  rock. 

^'This  bright,  shining  coal,  you  see,  is  simply 
vegetation  which  grew  long  ages  ago.  Sometimes 
the  imprint  of  a  leaf  may  clearly  be  seen  in  it. 
In  some  places  miners  find  stumps  of  trees  which 
have  been  changed  into  coal.'' 

'^Have  people  always  used  coal  as  fuel?'' 
asked  Foster. 

^'No,^'  replied  his  uncle.  ^^It  has  been  used 
but  a  few  hundred  years.  At  first  many  were 
afraid  to  burn  it." 

^^I  don't  see  why  they  were  afraid,'^  said  Her- 
bert. ^'Perhaps  they  thought  that  it  would 
explode,"  said  Foster. 

^^It  was  thought  that  the  smoke  poisoned  the 
air,"  said  Uncle  George.  '^Indeed,  King  Edward  I 
of  England  ordered  that  all  buildings  from  which 
coal  smoke  was  seen  to  issue,  were  to  be  destroyed. 


HOW   COAL  IS  MADE   AND  MINED  161 

He  even  made  the  burning  of  coal  an  offense 
punishable  by  death. 

'^In  time  this  foolish  order  was  changed,  yet 
people  were  not  free  to  do  as  they  wished.  In 
the  great  city  of  London  coal  could  not  be  burned 
during  the  time  that  Parliament  was  sitting. 
Many  of  the  members  came  from  the  country 
where  coal  was  not  used,  and  it  was  thought 
that  the  smoke  would  make  them  sicko^^ 

^^I  know  where  London  is/'  said  Foster,  point- 
ing to  it  on  the  mapo  ^^It  is  the  largest  city  in 
England/'   added  Herbert. 

*^Yes/'  added  Uncle  George,  '^and  it  is  the 
largest  city  in  the  world. 

^^  These  ideas  about  the  use  of  coal  seem  very 
strange  to  us.  There  were  many  others  equally 
strange.  For  a  long  time  the  ladies  who  belonged 
to  the  higher  classes  of  society  in  England  refused 
to  enter  homes  in  which  coal  was  used.  Many 
would  eat  no  food  cooked  by  means  of  it. 

'Toal  was  first  mined  in  our  country  about  one 
hundred  years  ago.  In  1814  twenty-two  tons 
of  anthracite  coal  were  produced  in  Pennsylvania. 
In  1822  the  mining  of  bituminous  coal  began/' 


162 


HOW  WE   ARE  SHELTERED 


^^I  wish  that  I  could  visit  a  coal  mine/'  said 
Herbert.  '^It  must  be  fun  to  work  in  one/^ 
put  in  Foster. 

'Toal  mining/'  replied  their  uncle,  '4s  both 
hard  and  dangerous  work.     It  is  anything  but 

pleasure,  you  may 
be  sure.  In  our 
country  alone, 
about  five  hun- 
dred thousand 
men  and  boys 
spend  a  large  part 
of  their  lives  in 
deep,  dark  mines. 
They  have  much 
less  time  than  you 
have  to  enjoy  the 
sunshine,  flowers, 
brooks,  trees,  and 

Fig.  55. — A  View  in  a  Coal  Mine.  birds.  These  Work- 
ers supply  us  with  coal  We  use  it  in  our  homes 
and  factorieSo  It  carries  us  across  continents 
and  oceans. 

''The  work  of   coal   mining   is   carried  on  in 


HOW  COAL  IS  MADE   AND  MINED  163 

different  ways/^  continued  Uncle  George.  '^In 
some  places  streams  have  cut  their  channels 
close  to  the  layers  of  coal.  A  horizontal  tunnel 
called  a  drift  can  then  be  cut  from  the  valley 
into  the  earth,  where  the  coal  is  deposited.  The 
coal  can  then  be  brought  out  through  such  drifts. 

^' Where  the  coal  is  very  deeply  buried,  this 
cannot  be  done.  An  opening  must  then  be  dug 
from  the  surface  straight  down  to  the  coal. 
Such  an  opening  is  called  a  shaft, 

'^When  the  shaft  reaches  the  coal,  the  miners 
cut  horizontal  drifts  as  they  follow  up  the  seams 
of  coal.  In  a  large  mine  there  are  many  miles 
of  these  tunnels. 

'^To  enter  such  a  mine  we  must  climb  into  a 
sort  of  elevator  called  a  cage.  Down,  down  the 
dark  shaft  we  go,  finally  reaching  the  bottom. 
At  first  we  can  see  nothing  clearly.  Flickering 
lights  are  moving  about.  We  see  shadowy  forms 
that  seem  to  be  far  off,  and  we  hear  strange 
noises. 

''The  lights  are  small  lamps  worn  on  the  caps 
of  the  miners.  Without  these,  they  could  not 
see  to  work  in  the  narrow,  dark  passages. 


164  HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

'^  There  is  in  mines  a  dangerous  gas  called 
'{ire  damp.  When  this  comes  in  contact  with  a 
flame,  an  explosion  follows.  On  this  account 
a  small  metal  case  surrounds  the  flame  of  each 
lamp.  You  see  the  small  holes  through  which 
the  light  comes. 

^'Look  at  this  man.  The  chamber  in  which 
he  is  working  is  so  small  that  he  must  lie  on  his 
side  as  he  works.  By  means  of  an  iron  rod  called 
a  drill  J  he  makes  holes  in  the  sides  and  roof  of 
the  chamber.  In  each  hole  he  places  a  car- 
tridge. A  fuse  is  lighted,  and  now  we  hear  the 
cry  of  ^Fire!'  Everybody  hurries  to  a  place 
of  safety.  Soon  there  is  a  loud  explosion,  shak- 
ing down  rock  and  coal  from  the  roof  and  walls 
of  the  chambero'' 

^^I  should  think  that  the  whole  roof  of  the  mine 
might  fall  in,''  said  Foster. 

'^ There  is  some  danger  of  that,''  returned  his 
uncle,  ''and  on  this  account  many  large  timbers 
are  used  to  brace  the  roof.  Many  columns  of 
coal  reaching  from  floor  to  ceiling  are  left  stand- 
ing, and  these  also  are  supports." 

''Who  gathers  up  the  coal  after  the  explosion  ?^^ 
asked  Herbert. 


HOW   COAL  IS   MADE   AND   MINED  165 

''That  is  done  by  helpers/^  replied  Uncle 
George.  '^See,  they  are  placing  the  coal  in  that 
small  car.  When  it  is  filled  they  will  push  it 
out  of  the  chamber.  Then  the  car  will  be  drawn 
to  the  foot  of  the  shaft  by  means  of  a  mule. 
Machinery  then  lifts  it  to  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
At  the  top  of  the  shaft  the  coal  is  weighed,  and 
a  record  kept  on  a  tin  ticket  which  shows  the 
miner's  number. 

"In  some  of  the  mines  the  drilling  is  done  by 
means  of  compressed  air,  and  the  cars  of  coal 
hauled  out  by  electric  motors.^' 

"How  much  coal  can  a  man  mine  in  a  day?'^ 
inquired  Herbert. 

"The  average  is  about  two  and  one-half 
tons/'  replied  his  uncle.  "Sometimes  a  man 
mines  double  this  amount.  The  miner  is  paid 
according  to  the  amount  of  coal  that  he  pro- 
duces.    He  pays  his  helper  out  of  his  own  wages. 

"There  is  much  work  to  be  done  even  after 
the  coal  is  mined.  The  anthracite  coal  is  put 
into  a  machine  called  a  breaker.  This  contains 
revolving  cylinders  having  strong,  sharp  teeth  of 
iron.    The    coal    falls    through    screens    having 


166  HOW   WE  ARE  SHELTERED 

openings  of  different  sizes.  The  largest  open- 
ings are  about  six  inches  across.  These  are  for 
lump  coal.  Egg,  nut,  buckwheat,  and  barley  are 
other  sizes,  not  different  kinds  of  coal. 

^^  Mixed  with  the  coal  are  pieces  of  slate  and 
other  impurities.  They  are  picked  out  by  boys 
called  breaker-boys. 

'^Next/'  said  Uncle  George,  '^  comes  the  ship- 
ment of  the  coal.  Much  of  it  is  shipped  by  rail, 
and  a  great  deal  is  shipped  by  water.  Much 
coal  is  floated  down  the  Delaware  River  on 
barges.  Many  of  the  barges  are  joined  together 
to  form  a  great  raft.  On  the  Great  Lakes  there 
are  many  ships,  each  of  which  carries  from  five 
to  six  thousand  tons  of  coal.  Such  a  ship  can 
be  loaded  by  means  of  machinery  in  less  than  a 
day. 

'^The  most  important  coal-producing  states,'' 
continued  Uncle  George,  '^are  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  West  Virginia,  Illinois,  Alabama,  and  Iowa. 
Nearly  all  of  our  anthracite  coal  comes  from 
eastern'  Pennsylvania,  but  a  little  is  produced  in 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico. 

'^  These  black  lumps  are  a  great  blessing  to  us. 


HOW   COAL   IS  MADE   AND  MINED  167 

Coal  is  our  common  fuel  in  the  home.  Most  of 
our  manufacturing  depends  upon  coal.  Most  of 
the  locomotives  that  draw  our  freight  and  pas- 
senger trains  from  place  to  place  burn  coal.  Coal 
is  the  fuel  on  the  great  steamships  that  go  from 
continent  to  continent.  So  you  see  it  is  not 
strange  that  lumps  of  coal  are  often  called  black 
diamonds.  Let  us  not  forget  that  we  owe  much 
to  the  workers  who  dig  this  precious  material 
from  the  earth.'' 


LIGHT 

How  cheerful  the  hghts  appear  as  they  shine 
from  the  windows  across  the  streets  or  fields  on 
a  dark  night.  By  means  of  the  light  in  our 
homes,  on  the  street,  in  the  stores,  and  in  the 
cars,  we  have  almost  turned  night  into  day. 
How  gloomy  it  would  seem  to  spend  a  single 
evening  in  a  dark  house. 

People  have  not  always  been  able  to  Hght 
their  houses.  For  a  long  time  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  were  man's  only  lamps.  They  shine 
now  as  they  did  thousands  of  years  ago,  and 
they  light  every  land  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Have  you  ever  seen  fireflies?  How  often  I 
have  watched  their  lights  gleaming  through  the 
woods  and  in  the  grass  on  summer  nights.  Often 
I  have  captured  some  of  the  little  creatures,  and 
placed  them  under  a  glass  so  as  to  see  them 
light  it  up.  It  is  said  that  the  Indians  used  to 
tie  fireflies  to  their  hands  and  feet  when  they 
were  hunting  or  traveling  at  night. 

168 


LIGHT  169 

One  of  the  early  means  of  procuring  light  was 
to  stick  a  piece  of  wood  or  a  reed  into  the  burn- 
ing body  of  some  fat  bird.  We  would  think 
this  a  very  strange  sort  of  lamp.  Often  the 
only  light  was  furnished  by  a  fire  burning  on  the 
floor  of  the  hut,  or  just  outside  the  entrance. 

After  a  while  people  learned  how  to  make 
torches.  Pine  knots,  rolls  of  bark,  rushes,  and 
other  things  were  used.  They  were  fastened  to 
the  walls  of  the  dwellings,  and  of  course  gave  a 
very  smoky  light.  Even  the  palaces  of  kings 
and  queens  had  no  better  light  than  this. 

People  had  no  matches  in  those  days,  so  it  was 
not  a  very  easy  matter  to  procure  light.  Some- 
times fire  was  obtained  by  rubbing  two  sticks 
together  very  briskly.  Sometimes  sparks  were 
produced  by  striking  a  piece  of  flint  against  a 
piece  of  iron  or  steel.  Have  you  ever  seen  a 
spark  fly  as  a  horse's  hoofs  struck  against  a 
stone  ?  These  sparks  from  the  flint  and  steel  fell 
upon  fine,  dry  material  called  tinder j  thus  setting 
fire  to  it.  One  hundred  years  ago  the  children 
in  our  own  country  were  learning  to  read  by 
the   fight    of    torches,    fireplaces,    and    candles. 


170 


HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


Abraham  Lincoln  used  to  lie  on  the  floor  of  the  log 
house  in  which  he  lived^  and  read  by  the  light  of 
the  fire. 

Long  before  Christ  was  bom  the  people  of 
India,  Egypt,  the  Holy  Land,  and  other  Eastern 

countries  used 
lamps.  Of  course 
they  were  not  like 
those  used  to-day. 
They  were  made  of 
terra  cotta,  stone, 
bronze,  brass,  sil- 
ver, and  gold.  Very 
wealthy  people 
used  precious 
stones  as  decora- 
tions for  their 
lamps.  These 
early  lamps  were 
of  many  curious 
shapes.  They  had 
no  chimneys,  and  so  were  very  smoky.  There 
was  no  kerosene  oil  in  use  at  that  time.  Those 
who  could  afford  it  burned  ohve  oiL 


Fig.  56o  —  An  Old-fashioned  Lamp. 


LIGHT  171 

Little  by  little  lamps  were  improvedo  In  the 
year  1783,  a  man  named  Argand  invented  a 
lamp  having  a  chimney.  That  was  a  great 
improvement. 

About  fifty  years  ago  kerosene  came  into  com- 
mon useo  Before  that  time  whale  oil  was  used 
in  lamps.  In  order  to  secure  the  oil,  fishermen 
went  on  long,  dangerous  voyages  in  search  of 
whales.  Boston  and  Salem  sent  out  many  whal- 
ing vessels.     Locate  these  places  on  the  map. 

Many  of  the  homes  of  our  Eskimo  friends  are 
lighted  by  means  of  lamps  made  of  shells,  or  of 
stones  hollowed  out„  These  lamps  are  filled  with 
oil  from  the  whale,  walrus,  or  seal.  Some  hold 
not  more  than  a  half-pint,  and  others  hold  three 
quarts  of  oil.  The  wicks  are  of  moss,  which  the 
Eskimo  children  gather  during  the  summer. 

The  Eskimo  calls  his  lamp  his  ikkimer.  It  is 
also  his  stove.  The  igloo  is  warmed,  and  the 
food  is  cooked,  by  means  of  these  simple  lamps. 

Candles,  like  lamps,  have  been  in  use  for  a 
long  time.  At  first  they  were  very  expensive. 
Even  one  hundred  years  ago  a  common  candle 
was  worth  ten  cents.    They  were  generally  made 


172  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

of  tallow.  A  number  of  wicks,  placed  a  short 
distance  apart,  were  tied  to  a  stick  or  small  piece 
of  board,  so  that  they  hung  vertically.  They 
were  then  lowered  into  a  vessel  containing  melted 
tallow.  When  the  wicks  were 
drawn  out,  the  stick  was  hung 
up,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
tallow  cooled  and  hardened  about 
them.  This  was  repeated  until 
the  candles  were  of  the  right 
size.  This  process  was  called 
dipping  candles.  Have  you  ever 
FiG.67,— A  Caudle-  gathered  rushes  in  a  marsh  or 
^^^^  '  along   a    stream?     People    once 

used  rushes  in  making  candles.  The  outside  of 
the  rushes  was  stripped  off,  and  the  stalks  were 
dipped  just  as  the  wicks  were.  Such  candles 
were  called  rush-lightSo 

It  was  a  great  improvement  when  people  began 
to  make  candles  in  molds.  The  molds  were  hol- 
low cylinders  of  tin  just  the  size  of  the  candles. 
A  wick,  having  the  upper  end  tied  to  a  stick,  was 
placed  in  each  tube  of  the  mold.  Melted  tallow 
was  then  poured  in.     When  this  hardened,  the 


LIGHT  173 

candles  were  pulled  out.  I  have  seen  my  grand- 
mother mold  candles  many  times. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  the  use  of  matches 
'that  it  hardly  seems  possible  that  people  ever  got 
along  without  them.  When  matches  were  more 
expensive  than  they  are  now,  children  helped 
save  them  by  rolling  up  bits  of  paper.  These 
were  often  of  bright  colors,  and  were  called 
twisters.  By  means  of  these,  light  could  be  car- 
ried from  one  candle  or  lamp  to  another„ 

I  have  told  you  how  light  was  procured  before 
matches  were  invented.  The  first  matches  were 
quite  different  from  those  iii  use  to-day.  They 
were  pine  splinters,  about  six  inches  in  length, 
and  sharpened  at  both  ends.  The  ends  were 
dipped  in  melted  sulphur.  Sparks  were  pro- 
duced by  striking  a  flint  and  steel  together. 
The  tips  of  these  matches  were  placed  so  that  the 
sparks  would  fall  upon  them,  and  cause  them  to 
burst  into  flame.  They  were  called  brimstone 
matches. 

After  a  time  there  was  an  improvement. 
Matches  similar  to  those  just  described  were 
kept  in  small  tin  boxes.     In  each  box  was  a 


174  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

bottle  containing  some  sulphuric  acid.  When  a 
light  was  wanted,  a  match  was  dipped  into  the 
acid,  and  a  flame  was  instantly  produced.  On 
this  account  the  box  was  called  the  instantaneous 
light  box. 

The  first  matches  that  would  produce  a  flame 
by  friction  were  made  in  1827.  They  were 
called  Lucifer  matches.  The  matches  were  drawn 
between  a  folded  piece  of  sandpaper  to  light  them. 
The  rough  surface  of  the  paper  produced  heat 
enough  to  ignite  them. 

Fifty  years  ago  matches  were  more  expensive 
than  they  are  now.  They  were  cut  out  by  hand. 
This  was  a  slow  process  compared  with  the  rapid 
way  in  which  they  are  now  made  by  machinery. 
A  single  machine  can  make  millions  of  matches 
in  a  day. 

Matches  are  made  from  pine  planks  about  two 
inches  in  thickness,  and  free  from  knots.  The 
planks  are  cut  into  blocks  the  length  of  a  match. 
The  blocks  are  cut  into  thin  strips,  and  the  strips 
into  splinters.  The  heads  are  put  on  to  the 
matches,  and  the  matches  are  placed  in  boxes  by 
machinery.    The  United  States,   Great  Britain, 


LIGHT  175 

Norway,  Sweden,  and  Japan  are  some  of  the 
important  match-making  countrieSo 

Before  people  knew  how  to  Hght  their  houses, 
they  could  do  almost  nothing  at  night.  Dark- 
ness put  an  end  to  work  of  all  kinds.  Having 
the  light  of  a  fireplace  was  much  better  than 
having  none  at  all,  but  you  would  not  want  to 
read  by  such  a  light.  How  wonderful  it  is  to  be 
able  to  light  our  homes,  our  stores,  our  streets, 
by  gas  and  electric  light. 

Gas  is  of  two  kinds,  natural  and  artificial. 
Natural  gas  comes  from  the  earth.  It  has  been 
known  and  used  by  the  Chinese  for  centuries. 
It  was  carried  in  pipes  of  bamboo  instead  of  in 
iron  ones  as  it  is  in  our  country  to-day.  What 
a  wonderful  plant  the  bamboo  is. 

Much  natural  gas  comes  from  the  coal  and  oil 
region  in  the  eastern  part  of  our  country.  Wells 
are  put  down  much  as  they  are  when  oil  is  wanted, 
and  the  gas  is  often  piped  for  long  distances  to 
cities  and  towns  where  it  is  needed. 

More  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  a  man  dis- 
covered how  to  make  artificial  gas.  This  may  be 
made  by  heating  bituminous  coal  in  great  iron 


176  HOW  WE   ARE   SHELTERED 

tubes  called  retorts.  The  gas  that  is  driven  from 
the  coal  by  this  process,  is  purified  and  conveyed 
to  immense  tanks,  where  it  is  stored.  In  the 
manufacture  of  another  kind  of  artificial  gas, 
water  is  used,  and  on  this  account  it  is  called 
water  gas.  It  is  cheaper  than  coal  gas,  and  is 
much  used. 

Wonderful  as  gas  light  is,  electric  light  is  still 
more  wonderful.  It  seems  like  a  fairy  tale  to 
think  of  simply  pressing  a  button  and  flooding  a 
room  with  light.  Have  you  ever  seen  the  lights 
along  the  street  spring  out  of  the  darkness?  I 
have  been  upon  a  mountain  top  looking  out  over 
a  great  dark  valley,  when  suddenly,  as  if  by 
magic,  a  thousand  lights  danced  where  before 
was  darkness.  The  lights  in  a  whole  city  miles 
away  had  been  turned  on.  It  was  a  wonderful 
sight !  Another  wonderful  thing  about  it  was, 
that  the  energy  that  produced  this  magic  light 
came  from  mountain  streams  many  miles  from 
the  city. 

Compare  this  method  of  lighting  streets  and 
homes  with  that  employed  in  the  past.  Before 
gas  was  used  most   cities  were  dark  at  night. 


LIGHT  177 

Sometimes  baskets  made  of  iron  were  suspended 
at  street  corners.  In  these,  pine  knots  were 
burned.  Because  of  the  Hght  which  we  now 
enjoy,  mills,  factories,  and  trains  can  be  operated 
at  night  as  well  as  during  the  day.  Our  wonder- 
ful light  makes  it  easy  to  read,  study,  play  on 
musical  instruments,  and  do  countless  other 
things  at  night,  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  do 
without  it.  We  enjoy  many  blessings  which 
people  did  not  enjoy  in  the  past,  and  light  is 
one  of  the  greatest  of  these. 


PETROLEUM 

I  HAVE  told  you  how  your  great-grandmothers 
used  to  make  candles.  You  remember  that  at 
one  time  candles  used  to  furnish  the  light  in  all 
civilized  homes.  It  is  not  very  long  since  people 
began  to  use  kerosene-oil  lamps.  Ask  your 
grandparents  about  it. 

Long  ages  before  men  lived  on  this  world  of 
ours,  the  plants  and  animals,  which  to-day  give 
us  our  supplies  of  petroleum  and  natural  gas, 
lived  and  grew.  When  those  plants  and  animals 
died,  their  bodies,  in  some  cases,  gathered  on  the 
floor  of  some  body  of  water.  Gradually,  very 
gradually,  they  were  covered  by  sand  and  mud, 
which,  after  many  centuries,  became  rock.  Then 
two  wonderful  things  happened  —  things  more 
wonderful  than  the  work  of  Cinderella's  fairy 
godmother.  One  of  these  marvelous  things  was 
that  many  of  the  rocks,  at  one  time  the  bed  of 
the  sea,  were  raised  high  above  the  surface  of  the 

178 


PETROLEUM  179 

water,  and  some  of  them  now  stand  as  mountains. 
The  other  marvel  was  that  through  a  very  slow 
change  in  the  bodies  of  the  plants  and  animals, 
oil  and  gas  were  formed. 

Oil  is  found  in  rock.  On  this  account  it  is 
often  called  ^^  rock-oil.^'  That  is  what  the  word 
petroleum  means. 

Perhaps  you  are  wondering  how  a  rock  can 
contain  oil.  You  know  that  a  piece  of  wood 
that  has  been  in  water  for  some  time  is  much 
heavier  than  it  is  after  it  has  dried.  There  are 
small  spaces  between  the  particles  of  wood,  in 
which  the  water  is  gathered  and  held. 

Certain  rocks,  such  as  sandstone  and  shale, 
are  rather  porous.  That  is,  there  is  room  between 
their  particles  for  some  liquid.  It  is  in  these 
rocks  that  petroleum  is  found. 

Below  the  rock  containing  the  oil,  there  must 
be  other  rock  through  which  the  oil  cannot  pass. 
What  kind  of  rock  would  prevent  the  oil  from 
passing  through  it?  Above  the  oil  there  must 
also  be  rock  that  will  prevent  its  escape.  Wells 
are  sunk  into  the  rock  containing  the  oil,  and  the 
oil   is   pumped   out.     Sometimes   it   spouts   out 


180  HOW  WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

with  great  force,  rising  many  feet  into  the 
air. 

When  the  oil  comes  from  the  rock,  it  is  usually 
dark  in  color.  After  it  has  been  refined  it  is 
colorless.  Kerosene,  benzene,  naphtha,  and  gaso- 
line are  made  by  refining  petroleum. 

Oil  is  lighter  than  water,  and  so  will  float  on 
the  surface  of  a  pond  or  stream.  In  early  days 
people  used  to  place  blankets  on  the  surface  of 
streams  upon  which  oil  was  floating.  When  the 
blankets  had  absorbed  considerable  oil,  they  were 
carefully  removed  and  wrung.  In  other  places 
where  oil  was  quite  thick,  it  was  skimmed  from 
the  water  by  means  of  boards.  At  that  time  peo- 
ple did  not  burn  oil.     It  was  used  as  a  medicine. 

In  the  year  1852,  a  man  named  Kier  distilled 
some  petroleum,  and  used  it  in  a  lamp.  It  did 
not  burn  very  well,  however. 

Seven  years  after  that  the  first  oil  well  was 
sunk.  That  was  in  Pennsylvania.  When  the 
men  quit  work  one  Saturday  evening,  the 
well  was  sixty-nine  and  one-half  feet  deep. 
There  was  no  oil  in  sight.  The  following  day 
one   of   the  workmen   passed   by  the  well   and 


PETROLEUM 


181 


looked  in.  To  his  surprise  it  was  nearly  filled 
with  oil.  That  well  yielded  about  twenty-five 
barrels  daily. 

That    caused   great    excitement.     Other    men 
drilled  wells  and  pumped  out  oil.     To-day  the 


Fig.  58.  —  Oil  Derricks  at  Los  Angeles,  California. 

oil  industry  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the 
world. 

When  men  wish  to  drill  an  oil  well,  a  derri^ 
is  erected  over  the  spot  where  they  expect  1» 
find  oil.    An  iron  pipe  is  then  driven  into  the 


182 


HOW   WE   ARE   SHELTERED 


earth.  Inside  of  this,  a  sharp  steel  instrument 
called  a  drill  works.  At  the  surface  of  the  earth 
the  pipe  may  be  ten  inches  in  diameter.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  well  it  may  be  but  two.  Some- 
times .oil  is  found  near  the  surface  of  the  earth  ° 


Fig.  59.  —  Oil  Wells  along  the  Coast,  Summerland,  California. 


sometimes  the  wells  are  two  or  three  thousand 
feet  deep. 

It  costs  a  great  deal  to  sink  a  deep  well. 
Sometimes  a  single  well  will  cost  several  thou- 
sand doliarSc     Many  wells  are  drilled  from  which 


PETROLEUM  183 

no  oil  is  ever  pumped.  They  are  called  dry 
wells. 

In  order  to  make  a  basin  at  the  bottom  of  the 
well  a  few  gallons  of  nitroglycerin  are  carefully 
lowered  to  the  base  of  the  tube.  That  is  a  very 
explosive  substance.  Next  an  iron  weight  is 
dropped  into  the  well. 

Shooting  the  wells  is  very  dangerous  work. 
When  the  charge  is  lowered^  the  men  hurry  with 
flying  feet  to  a  place  of  safety.  With  eager 
eyes  and  drawn  breath  all  await  the  terrible 
explosion  which  results  when  the  iron  weight 
strikes  the  nitroglycerin.  High  into  the  air 
rise  bits  of  rock,  water,  and  sometimes  a  great 
quantity  of  oil.  For  days  or  even  weeks  the  well 
may  continue  to  spout  oil.  Such  a  well  is  known 
as  a  gusher. 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  great  gusher  at 
Beaumont,  Texas.  People  traveled  for  miles  to 
see  the  sight.  It  was  like  a  waterfall  turned 
upside  down.  In  early  days  gushers  sometimes 
poured  down  upon  a  river  until  a  layer  of  oil 
was  formed  upon  the  water.  Occasionally  this 
caught  fire,  sending  through  the  valley  a  great 


184  HOW   WE  ARE   SHELTERED 

sheet  of  flame  which  devoured  boats^  houses.^ 
and  everything  in  its  path. 

Formerly  the  petroleum  was  carried  to  the 
refineries  in  wagons.  Now  great  pipes  often 
carry  it  for  many  mileSo  There  is  a  pipe  line 
thi^ee  hundred  miles  in  lengthy  which  extends 
from  Olean  to  New  York  Cityc  The  oil  is 
forced  through  the  pipes  by  means  of  pumps. 

The  refineries  are  often  situated  near  some 
large  body  of  water  so  that  the  kerosene  can  be 
shipped  cheaplyo  There  are  great  refineries  at 
New  York^  Philadelphia^  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  and 
ChicagOo    Locate  these  cities  on  the  map. 

Our  country  sends  much  oil  to  foreign  lands 
in  great  oil  shipSo  These  vessels  are  really  tanks 
of  steel;,  and  are  called  tank  shipSo  Oil  is 
pumped  into  them  through  pipeSo  A  large  ship 
can  be  filled  in  about  six  hours. 

The  United  States  and  Russia  are  the  two 
greatest  oil-producing  countries  in  the  world. 
Pennsylvaniap  Ohio,  West  Virginia,  Texas,  and 
California  furnish  most  of  our  oil. 


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COMMENTS 


North  Plainfield,  NJ.  —  "I  think  it  the  best  Geography  that  I  have 
seen."  —  H.  J.  Wightman,  Superintendent, 

Boston,  Mass.  —  "I  have  been  teaching  the  subject  in  the  Boston  Nor- 
mal School  for  over  twenty  years,  and  Book  I  is  the  book  I  have 
been  looking  for  for  the  last  ten  years.  It  comes  nearer  to  what  I 
have  been  working  for  than  anything  in  the  geography  line  that  I 
have  yet  seen.     I  congratulate  you  on  the  good  work." 

—  Miss  L.  .T.  Moses,  Normal  School 

Detroit,  Mich.  —  "I  am  much  pleased  with  it  and  have  had  enthusiastic 
praise  for  it  from  all  the  teachers  to  whom  I  have  shown  it.  It 
seems  to  me  to  be  scientific,  artistic,  and  convenient  to  a  marked 
degree.  The  maps  are  a  perfect  joy  to  any  teacher  who  has  been 
using  the  complicated  affairs  given  in  most  books  of  the  kind." 

—  Agnes  McRae. 

De  Kalb,  111.  —  "I  have  just  finished  examining  the  first  book  of  Tarr 
and  McMurry^s  Geographies.  I  have  read  the  book  with  care 
from  cover  to  cover.  To  say  that  I  am  pleased  with  it  is  express- 
ing it  mildly.  It  seems  to  me  just  what  a  geography  should  be. 
It  is  correctly  conceived  and  admirably  executed.  The  subject  is 
approached  from  the  right  direction  and  is  developed  in  the  right 
proportions.  And  those  maps  —  how  could  they  be  any  better? 
Surely  authors  and  publishers  have  achieved  a  triumph  in  text- 
book making.  I  shall  watch  with  interest  for  the  appearance  of 
the  other  two  volumes."  —  Professor  Edward  C.  Page,  Northern 
Illinois  State  Normal  School, 

Asbury  Park,  N.J.  —  "I  do  not  hesitate  at  all  to  say  that  I  think  the 
Tarr  and  McMurry's  Geography  the  best  in  the  market." 

—  F.  S.  Shepard,  Superintendent  of  Schools, 

Ithaca,  N.Y.  —  "I  am  immensely  pleased  with  Tarr  and  McMurry's 
Geography."  —  Charles  Dk  Garmo,  Professor  of  Pedagogy^ 
Cornell  University. 


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